Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama stated that there was no substantial evidence to weigh the allegations of sexual misconducts raised against three house of representative members, Mohammed Gololo, Samuel Ikon and Mark Gbillah, by the outgoing ambassador of America to Nigeria James Entwistle.
The minister, who appeared before the Mr. Nicholas Ossai-led joint House Committees on Ethics, Privileges and Foreign Affairs yesterday, said his position, was based on the information made available to him by Ambassador Entwistle.
Onyema argued that his position was reinforced by the fact that efforts by the Nigerian government to get testimonies from the accusers-an unidentified housekeeper and car park attendants in the Renaissance Marriot Resident Inn in downtown Cleveland to substantiate their claims-met a brick wall as they refused to respond.
Acknowledging that the publication of the allegations had smeared the image of the lawmakers, Onyeama agreed that Entwistle breached protocol by first sending correspondence to Speaker Yakubu Dogara on the issue without first notifying the foreign ministry.
The minister however, defended the decision by the US authorities to withdraw the entry permit of the three lawmakers, saying the American Embassy in Nigeria could exercise such powers at any time it deems fit.
According to Onyema, the allegations are just allegations on one hand, which the ambassador brought to the attention of the Speaker and of course it the evidence I felt was not strong enough.
“I had assumed there would be recording, pictures and DNAs and what have you but I was surprised that the alleged complainants refused to testify when approached by our own government,” he said.
The minister maintained, that the confirmation of this allegation I think is a bit ambiguous. It can only be confirmed to be true if a court of some sort has all the evidence and is in a position to have access to the facts. At this stage it is some people’s words against some other people.
Photo Credit: wixnews.com
Source: guardian.ng