Sex Scandal: US Envoy’s Allegations Lack Evidence – Minister

Fri, Jul 22, 2016
By publisher
3 MIN READ

Political Briefs

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GEOFFREY Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs, has said that James Entwistle, outgoing United States Ambassador to Nigeria, did not have any credible evidence to prove the allegations of sexual misconduct against three members of the House of Representatives. Onyeama on Thursday, July 21, said Entwistle, who wrote a petition to Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House, on the alleged sexual misconduct against the lawmakers, did not provide any concrete evidence that would have proved the allegations.

Testifying before the Joint House Committee on Ethics/Privileges and Foreign Relations, the minister said Entwistle told him that all he did was to bring the allegations to the attention of Dogara, not that the US Government passed any judgment of guilt on the Nigerian legislators. He said Entwistle described his letter as a “private, confidential letter” to Dogara, merely to draw his attention to the fact that the allegations were made against his members, who visited the US in April.

Onyeama claimed that the Ambassador did not accept responsibility for the leakage of the letter to the public but apologised for not using the formal diplomatic channel of writing the Speaker through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The minister explained that when the matter was brought to his attention, he summoned Entwistle to verify it.

“He told me that these were allegations and nothing more; that as far as they were concerned, the matter was closed. That the allegations did not indicate a position that the ambassador had already passed a judgment or the US Government,” he said.

Onyeama said he was upset by the response of the ambassador and further asked for the evidence that led to his writing to Dogara. He said Entwistle replied that the letter was written based on the allegations made by a hotel housekeeper and the park attendants just to keep Dogara informed of the development.

“I said who made the allegations? He said a hotel maid or cleaner, who said Garba-Gololo made inappropriate request and approached her in the hotel. But he now made it clear that the housekeeper would not testify; that she does not want to testify. I was surprised that the person who made such a serious allegation was not willing to testify.

“For the parking lot attendants, the ambassador said they identified the lawmakers in photographs. I replied that there is clearly a possibility of a legal proceeding for defamation because I thought there was stronger evidence. Again, he apologised that his only point of writing Dogara was to pass information about those allegations.”

Entwistle, in his June 9 letter to Dogara, alleged that Terse Mark-Gbillah, Samuel Ikon and Mohammed Garba-Gololo, behaved inappropriately towards a hotel housekeeper and solicited the services of car park attendants to get prostitutes for them.

—  Aug 1, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT

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