Not surprisingly, the House of Representatives, according to reports, Tuesday, cleared three of its lawmakers erstwhile United States’ Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle, accused of sexual transgressions when they were in US early in the year for an official engagement. Entwistle had writen the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep Yakubu Dogara on June 9, 2016, claiming three out of 10 members of the House on the official trip were involved in cases of attempted rape and soliciting for prostitutes from staff of a hotel in Cleveland, Ohio.
The affected lawmakers were Reps Mohammed Garba Gololo (Bauchi State), Samuel Ikon (Akwa Ibom State) and Mark Gbillah (Benue State). Other lawmakers that made the trip were Reps Gaza Jonathan Gbefwi (Nasarawa State), Danburam Abubakar Nuhu (Kano State), Nkole Uko Ndukwe (Abia State), Rita Orji (Lagos State) and Ayo Huliyat Omidiran (Osun State).
The names of the remaining two were not given. The lawmakers, according to reports, were invited by the US for the International Visitor Leadership Program held in Cleveland, Ohio between April 7 and 13, 2016.
Smoking national outrage was what followed the sex scandal which broke out not quite long after former British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron, scorned Nigeria as a ‘fantastically corrupt nation’. The lawmakers stridently pleaded their innocence and threatened legal fire and brimstone to exonerate
themselves from the shameful spectacle.
Speaker Dogara, for his part, was credited as being insistent on the innocence of the three lawmakers until the outcome of investigations by the House. When it was time to bell the cat, unfortunately, Entwistle disappointed Nigerians and the rest of the world and failed to provide proof of the grave and damaging allegation.
The former US envoy thus set the stage for the clean score card the House of Representatives gave its members last Tuesday.
For, notwithstanding the fact that Entwistle infracted protocol by forwarding the letter straight to Dogara instead of channelling it through the Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama; he was invited to present video evidence of his claims before an investigative panel constituted by the House of Representatives on the matter. But twice he failed to do so, despite his earlier promises and widely publicised summons the House of Representatives extended to him.
When the Foreign Affairs Minister – Onyeama, graced the invitation of the Reps’ Joint Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Foreign Relations which handled the matter, he told the lawmakers that Entwistle had no video evidence to back the allegations; and that the confirmation of the allegations was “a bit ambiguous and weak” since the principal complainant in the matter refused to give evidence.
“The first point I made to him (Entwistle) was that he had not at any stage briefed the Foreign Affairs Ministry about the allegations.
He acknowledged that that was a failing on his side and apologised. The first thing he said was that he wrote what he believed was a confidential letter to the Speaker of the House.
That he felt obliged to write the letter because of the framework of the visit – government to government agreement and it was merely information that there were allegations against three members of the Nigerian delegation.
He didn’t say anything about the position of the American government”, Onyeama stated.
Onyeama revealed, in addition, that Entwistle told him the US government did not intend to pursue the matter either through the legal authorities or beyond what the ambassador did. Reports also indicated that the house keeper that accused Rep Gololo of grabbing her refused to testify or substantiate the allegation. Indeed, the ground was deeply softened before the Reps’ verdict on their discredited members last Tuesday.
We believe, however, that the indicted Reps would seek legal redress against Entwistle and the US government for defamation of character as virtually all of them earlier threatened.
Perhaps more importantly, the affected Reps should realise that Entwistle’s bungling of the investigation of the matter made their day, not necessarily their plea of innocence. While basking in the clearance given them, they should strive to approach their official assignments at all times, locally and internationally, with untainted integrity.
Though vindicated, many stillB feel there’s no smoke without fire, going by all that is known of the Nigerian legislature.
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