Members of the House of Representatives were last night waiting anxiously for information on the panel which Speaker Yakubu Dogara promised on Thursday to set up to probe the allegation that three Reps groped a hotel chambermaid and tried to solicit prostitutes while visiting the US.
Listed for probe are Mohammed Garba Gololo (Gamawa, Bauchi State) who is alleged to have “grabbed a housekeeper in his hotel room and solicited her for sex,” Mark Terseer Gbillah (Gwer East/Gwer West, Benue) and Samuel Ikon (Etinam/Nsit Ibom/Nsit Ubium, Cross River) both of who allegedly “requested hotel parking attendants to assist them to solicit prostitutes.”
The decision to probe them, according to a report by The Nation, stemmed from a petition to the Speaker by the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle, who said the US government “took pains to confirm these allegations and identities of the individuals with the employees of the hotel.”
Gololo and Gbillah have strenuously denied the allegations.
Gbillah’s US-based wife, Sophia, spoke yesterday with The Nation on the phone, defending her husband. She said her man was wrongly accused.
Although House spokesman, Abdulrazak Namdas, told reporters on Thursday that the Green Chamber of the National Assembly had commenced investigation into the scandal, The Nation gathered last night that no committee of the House had been assigned the responsibility by the Speaker.
A House source who pleaded anonymity said the leadership of the House appeared to be treading cautiously on the issue, hence the delay in constituting the panel.
The source said: “Normally, the Nicholas Ossai-led Ethics and Privileges Committee that conducts investigation into allegations of misdemeanor by members should have been mandated by the leadership to handle the matter.
“But as we speak, no official information has been forwarded to the committee to commence any investigation in that direction.
“We cannot however rule out the composition of an ad hoc committee to do the job in view of the magnitude of the allegation and the fact that the nation’s image is at stake.
“If the leadership prefers an ad hoc committee, no one should be surprised that some members of the leadership would be members.
“As we speak, nothing has been done so far. But it is also possible that the Speaker might have asked some people (without the knowledge of other members) to carry out the investigation.”
The US Embassy has already cancelled the visas of the three Reps. Gololo and Gbillah are demanding retraction of the allegations by the ambassador.
Gololo, rising in his own defence, dismissed the allegation against him as false and unfounded.
“I was shocked. I was embarrassed. There is nothing as such that has happened,” he told the BBC.
“You can imagine if one attempted to rape someone or grabbed someone, what stopped the person from screaming? What stopped the person from shouting?” he asked.
“Remember we were there in April. Now we are in June. What stopped them from alleging or stopped them from reporting from April until now? What stopped them from bringing footage or some video clips of how it happened and where it happened?
“It’s false, it’s unfounded, and it’s really embarrassing.”
Gbillah in a lengthy protest letter to the US Ambassador said: “The accused individuals were not accosted with these allegations while in the US so they could immediately defend themselves. The hotel employees conveniently refrained from making these allegations while the members of the group were in the United States and curiously decided to do so after our departure.
“What is the reason behind their not reporting these incidents immediately they occurred and why are we only being informed about these allegations two months after our return from the US?
“None of the members of the group was driving a vehicle while at the hotel and would therefore have had no cause to interact with the car park attendants as the Residence Inn car park is not in front of the hotel but somewhere behind and some distance away from the hotel.
“You will have to go out of your way to go to the car park so video footage should clearly indicate whether or not any member of the group interacted with a hotel car park attendant.
“Other groups comprising African Americans and other ‘people of colour’ were also occupying the Residence Inn while this group of House of Representatives members was visiting Cleveland because of the scheduled basketball game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Atlanta Hawks at the Quicken Loans Arena, which is just across the road from the hotel.
“What is the certainty of the ability of the probably caucasian hotel car park attendants to accurately identify the specific members of any of the groups at the hotel as being responsible for the purported infractions?”
His engineer wife, Sophia, speaking by phone from the USA, said:
“My husband did not do what he has been accused of. What they have alleged that he did. The few people in Nigeria today, who have had cause to interact with my husband would have come away with a certain impression of the kind of person that my husband is. And that impression is that he is an honourable, but more importantly God- fearing person.
“Because of the value that my husband places on the God he serves, he would never do this kind of thing. Because of the kind of person that my husband is as a person, he would never do this kind of thing. And finally, because my husband values his family and loves me, his wife, he would never do this kind of thing.
“So, yes, my response to all this is: I know my husband very well, and I know my husband did not do anything that they have said; any of the things that they have alleged he did. So the accusations are totally unfounded, completely unfounded.
“Now to the second issue of where I was, where he was…when this program came up, my husband requested officially by e- mail, from the organisers of this programme that he would be traveling with his wife and his baby…we have a 9-month-old baby, that he would like them to accompany him on this programme.
“The person who initially responded to that mail was a bit aggressive in his response, telling my husband that he can’t come with me. The way he responded was not the nicest way, and I have evidence, facts to prove it. It was sent by e-mail and the e- mail is still in existence.
“So, as a result of that, my husband and I agreed that we would travel together, but I decided that no, I’m just going to allow you go and do this thing by yourself in the chosen location. Now after this response from the man who responded initially, we were now able to talk to another one of the organizers of the programme who said it’s okay, I could go but could attend non-official events like the basketball event.
“But I thought I had already decided that since they said it’s an official thing and family is not allowed. You just go do what you have to do. I would be in the US as well, but you go do this.
“Where I am is about 45 minutes to an hour from where my husband was. He was in Washington DC and I was in Owings Mills, Maryland. They had to go to two separate locations – Washinton DC and Cleveland in Ohio. My husband came to see us the night of the day they were supposed to finish from Washington
“My husband and I are constantly on FaceTime when we are not together. Now my husband went to Ohio and I knew just about what went on. The day they were free, he was with me on FaceTime all day.”
Credit The Nation. http://thenationonlineng.net/sex-scandal-anxiety-reps-await-probe-panel/