The House of Representatives has sought an audience with the outgoing Ambassador of the United States to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle, after the envoy shunned Thursday’s investigative public hearing by the House on the alleged s*xual misconduct by three of its members during a recent visit to the U.S.
The House soft-pedalled on its insistence on Thursday that the Ambassador must attend the hearing now rescheduled for July 20 following the realization that he enjoys diplomatic immunity.
Recall that Speaker Yakubu Dogara instituted a public hearing into alleged s*xual misconduct leveled against Mohammed Garba Gololo (APC, Bauchi), Samuel Ikon (PDP, Akwa Ibom) and Mark Gbillah (APC, Benue) based on a June 9, 2016 petition written to the House leadership by Mr. Entwsitle.
In the said petition, the envoy accused the lawmakers of attempted r*pe and soliciting prostitutes while on an official visit to his country in April.
The affected lawmakers strongly denied the allegations and vowed to use every legal means available to them to redeem their battered image. But the U.S Ambassador stood his ground amid reports that he had video evidence to back up the allegations against the trio.
Speaking on Mr. Entwistle’s decision to shun the public hearing, Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, told reporters yesterday that the House will “go to the Ambassador” if necessary in a bid to get to the root of the allegations.
It was gathered that the Chairperson of the House Committee on Foreign Relations, Nnenna Elendu- Ukeje, drew attention to the Vienna Convention which precludes an Ambassador from being summoned by his host country’s legislature.
She proposed that the best option was to allow the Minister of Foreign Affairs to provide an enabling platform for an interaction between the committee and Entwistle.
Namdas, who is a member of the joint committee investigating the s*xual misconduct allegations, said that although the Ambassador breached the channel of communication by writing to the Speaker directly, the House “will get across to the Ambassador”, upon the return of the Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama from an official visit to Rwanda.
He said: “We cannot subject him to compulsorily appearance before this committee. It depends on where you want to go.
“It’s an investigation. The most important thing is that his side will also be heard”.
The House spokesman allayed fears that the investigation would be compromised because two of the accused persons – Gbillah and Ikon – are members of the Foreign Affairs committee.
“When this thing took place, there was no selection of which committee you belong to for us to say it was done with intention.
“The essence of public hearing is to be able to clear some of these doubts”, Namdas stated.
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