Senate President Godswill Akpabio has narrated how angry Nigerians crashed his phone with calls over the nightclub comment he made against his colleague, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.

Akpabio had told Natasha during plenary last week that the Senate chamber was not a “nightclub” therefore, the female senator must be recognised before she speaks.

But the statement was greeted with heavy bashing from Nigerians.

During plenary on Tuesday, Akpabio, who presided over the session apologised, saying he would never deliberately denigrate a woman and that he never intended to insult Senator Natasha.

He said it was not his intention to ridicule the female senator and attributed the social media ‘twist’ to handiwork of their political enemies.

The senate president said his wife’s phone number was made public, adding that she received over 3,000 calls daily.

He said: “I am still learning. Even those of us who have been in the Senate for the 16 years are still learning, so we will do well to continue to learn.

“In the course of talking to one of my distinguished sisters, I said she should speak whenever she is recognised.

“I made reference tp the fact that we are not in a night club where people have to shout above the noise of the music and the social media got agog. I am not on social media but my wife called me that people got angry and published her phone number for people to occupy her.

“She received over 2000 to 3000 phone calls a day, then I tried to put on one of my phones and then I realized it was in the public. In fact the phone crashed after about three hours.”