Sex Scandal: Reps Accuse US Ambassador Of Racial Bias

One of the three members of the House of Representatives accused of alleged sexual misconduct by the outgoing United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr James Entwistle, yesterday accused the envoy

 of racial bias stating that the allegations are premeditated.L-R: Samuel Ikon, Mohammed Gololo, Mark GbillahHon. Mark Gbillah who made the declaration yesterday while making his presentation at the investigative hearing on the allegations, insisted that he was wrongly accused and would do
everything legally possible to clear his name.He said:“The US Ambassador from the onset had a condescending attitude towards us as a group. He was scheduled to meet with us but never did.“Even when I met him at a function, I walked up to him and introduced myself as one of the participants of the programme, he condemningly responded that I was one of the members who embarrassed him in his country. It was in that brief encounter that I learnt of the allegation and even advised him to make a formal report not aware that I was part of the supposed persons. “Cleveland and Ohio as a state is known for racism. There have been cases where non-whites were accused for offences that turned out to be false. Recently, a man of Arabian extraction was accused of being a member of ISIS by a clerk of a hotel just because he was dressed in an Arabian attire and spoke Arabic. He was arrested but later found to be innocent”, he stated. “The ambassador is not exempted from this racial prejudice given his background and he made this manifest in the way and manner he handled this issue.The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, had failed on Wednesday to appear before the Joint House of Representatives Committees on Ethics/Privileges and Foreign Relations investigating the alleged sexual misconduct against the three lawmakers in the United States of America last April. Onyeama could not attend the hearing as he had to attend the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja.The hearing was stalled last week as well because Onyeama said he was away in Kigali, Rwanda, to attend the 29th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union.The outgoing US Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle also failed to honor the panel's invitation.The US Envoy who wrote a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives accusing the three lawmakers of sexual misconduct, was expected to appear before the joint panel to provide video evidence for the alleged crime. He was supposed to appear last week Thursday July 14th but failed to honor the panel's invitation.