The House of Representatives’ joint committee on ethics and privileges
and foreign affairs investigating allegations of sexual misconduct
against three members of the House has invited the United States’
Ambassador to Nigeria , Mr. James Entwistle, to appear before it on
Thursday, July 14.
The committee , which commences sitting on
Thursday, two weeks after it was mandated to carry out the assignment,
also invited the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC ) and the three
lawmakers alleged to have engaged in sexual misconduct.
It was
New Telegraph that exclusively broke the story of the sex scandal.
Chairman of the joint committee, Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai, who
disclosed this at the weekend in Abuja, said the investigative hearing
will be conducted in the open at Hearing Room 028 at the National
Assembly Complex, Abuja.
Ossai had earlier hinted that the
committee was working assiduously to put logistics in place for
successful conduct of the exercise. He explained that the delay in the
commencement of the investigation was due to the absence of some members
of the committee , who were on lesser Hajj to Saudi Arabia.
He
said: “ For now , the ethics and privileges committee is working behind
the scene to ensure that it conducts a successful investigation into the
matter in line with the mandate given to it. ”
Recall that
following allegations of sexual misconduct levelled against some members
of the House by the United States Embassy in Nigeria , the leadership
had, on June 16 , mandated the joint committee to investigate the
veracity or otherwise of the allegations. While Ossai chairs the Ethics
and Privileges Committee , Hon. Nnenna Elendu- Ukeje (PDP, Abia ) chairs
the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Both committees have resolved to
commence investigation into the matter . The Ambassador had, in a letter
dated June 9 , alleged that three members of the House namely: Hon.
Mohammed Garba Gololo (APC, Bauchi), Hon. Samuel Ikon (PDP, Akwa Ibom )
and Hon. Mark Gbillah (APC, Benue) had, on a recent visit to US for the
International Visitor Leadership Programme, brought disrepute to the
parliament by allegedly soliciting for sex from prostitutes and grabbing
an hotel housekeeper.
Ten lawmakers were invited by the US
Government for the conference held in Cleveland, Ohio. Entwistle ’s
letter reads: “It is with regret that I must bring to your attention the
following situation. Ten members of the Nigerian National Assembly
recently travelled to Cleveland, Ohio as participants in the
International Visitor Leadership Programme on good governance.
We
received troubling allegations regarding the behaviour of three members
of the delegation to this, the U.S Government ’s flagship professional
exchange programme “The U.S. Department of State and the Cleveland
Council on World Affairs received reports from employees of the
Cleveland hotel where the representatives stayed, alleging the
representatives engaged in the following behaviour. ” According to the
Ambassador, “Mohammed Garba Gololo allegedly grabbed a housekeeper in
his hotel room and solicited for sex from her.
While the
housekeeper reported this to her management , this incident could have
involved local law enforcement and resulted in legal consequences for
Representative Gololo. “Mark Terseer Gbillah and Samuel Ikon allegedly
requested hotel parking attendants to assist them to solicit for
prostitutes. ”
Already, the Embassy has revoked the visas of the
three lawmakers even before the commencement of the investigation . The
three lawmakers have denied the allegations.
Source:
https://newtelegraphonline.com/sex-scandal-reps-summon-us-ambassador-nhrc/
