New revelation has shown that the United States
of America has some really solid evidence of
s*xual misconduct against the accused Nigerian
lawmakers.
New investigation carried out by Premium Times,
has shown that U.S. officials have “solid evidence”
of the alleged misconduct Ambassador James
Entwistle reported to House of Representatives
Speaker, Yakubu Dogara.
has shown that U.S. officials have “solid evidence”
of the alleged misconduct Ambassador James
Entwistle reported to House of Representatives
Speaker, Yakubu Dogara.
According to Premium Times, high-level diplomatic
sources confirmed this.
In a letter dated June 9, the U.S. Ambassador in
Nigeria, Mr. Entwistle, accused three Nigerian
lawmakers – Mohammed Garba Gololo (Bauchi
APC), Samuel Ikon (Akwa Ibom PDP) and Mark
Gbillah (Benue APC) – of soliciting s*xual favours
from hotel staff in two separate incidents.
Mr. Gololo allegedly grabbed a housekeeper in his
hotel room and solicited her for sex while Messrs.
Ikon and Gbilla allegedly requested hotel parking
attendants to assist them to procure prostitutes.
The alleged incidents occurred in April at the
Residence Inn Marriot, Downtown Cleveland and
were promptly reported to State Department
officials by the hotel’s management.
In response to the lawmakers’ denial of the
allegations and threats of legal action, local
sources in Cleveland and sources close to State
Department and the Nigerian diaspora community
in Washington DC have told Premium Times that
relevant U.S. officials are in possession of records
specifying “circumstances of” the alleged
incidents, including “eyewitness reports” and real-
time “video” evidence.
“The Ambassador wouldn’t have written to the
Speaker if there is no solid evidence,” said one of
our sources, who added that after the hotel
manager reported the incidents, State Department
officers “had to investigate before acting on the
allegations.”
The investigation was extensive and exhaustive; it
included interrogation of relevant hotel staff and
review of all closed-circuit cameras in the vicinity
of the alleged incidents, state department insiders
said.
Hinting at details of the investigation, our source
countered Mr. Gololo’s denial, insisting that of the
three lawmakers, “he is the one who actually put
his hand on somebody, the others only made a
verbal request”.
Premium Times learnt from the state department
that “the woman he (Gololo) allegedly accosted felt
intimidated”. Local Cleveland sources told us that
she feared she would lose her job if she screamed
or caused discomfort to the hotel’s other guests.
She however reported the incident to her supervisor
at the soonest opportunity after extricating herself
from the offensive situation.
Sources equally brushed aside Mr. Gbilla’s
protestations about not having a car as a
diversion.
“You don’t need to have a car to talk to a parking
lot attendant,” he said.
This newspaper was reliably informed by our
Washington DC sources that Ambassador Entwistle
would neither retract nor apologize for the contents
of the letter sent to the Speaker.
“In all honesty, the Ambassador would not have
gone forward with the letter if there is no solid
evidence behind it,” he said adding that Mr.
Entwistle “is not going to apologize; there is
nothing to apologize for.”
Contrary to Mr. Gbillah’s assertion that Mr.
Entwistle’s petition was an attempt “to bring
disrepute to the hallowed institution of the National
Assembly and the entire nation of Nigeria”, our
source said the intention was to put out there that
some participants in the International Visitor
Leadership Programme (IVLP), not all, are guilty of
bad behaviour and to educate participants who
may be admitted for this and other programmes in
future.
“The reality is that these three gentlemen made a
mistake. They violated the terms of the IVLP of
which they were duly informed before they left
Abuja,” our source said.
“Prostitution is not legal in the U.S., they were
informed about that before their departure,” the
source said.
Our source insists that the lawmakers even had a
chance to redeem their image after the fact.
“If they had been remorseful, if they had just said it
was miscommunication and apologized, that would
have been the end of it,” the source said.
Instead, the lawmakers over-reacted and made
their case “sound worse than it is”, said our
source.
“They were accused of assault and solicitation, no
one talked about rape,” the source added.
Premium Times has it on good authority that State
Department officials are not worried about the
lawmakers’ threat of legal action because,
according to our Washington DC sources, “they
know their evidence will hold up in court”.
“If they (Gololo, Ikon and Gbillah) want the full
spotlight of the justice system to shine on the
evidence in the possession of the State
Department, they should go ahead and initiate a
lawsuit,” the source said.
He also insisted that the lawmakers were accorded
due respect even after hotel staff reported the
incidents to their managers.
“Their conduct was a breach of U.S. law, instead of
calling State Department officials, hotel managers
could have had them summarily arrested and
charged. As it is, everybody gave them a pass,
letting them complete the programme without
interference,” said the source.
The lawmakers’ alleged misconduct resonated
negatively among Nigerian-Americans who are
active in ongoing U.S. presidential election
campaigns.
Those scheduled to be in Cleveland next month for
the Republican Convention and allied political
activities are weary that they may be victimized for
the lawmakers’ bad behaviour.
Hotel management and staff may single them out
for unsavoury treatment, they said.
“I won’t be surprised if they keep female service
staff away from anyone who identifies as a
Nigerian or carries Nigerian passport,” a
Washington-based Nigerian said.
Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC has operated
without an ambassador since the death of
Professor Adebowale Adefuye last September.
When contacted, Gbara Awanen, Head of the
Political Section, Embassy of Nigeria, Washington
DC, said other than what he read in the Nigerian
media, he knew nothing about the incident.
Other officials declined to comment for this story.
- Via Premium Times
