…Says I knew this day will come, weeps over husbands promiscuity, infidelity

…US, EU countries revoke visa, places Ikon on FBI security watchlist

…I’m innocent- Embattled Reps begs wife

…Scandal, threat to national security- Analysts

The sex scandal involving the former Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly and current member representing Etinan Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Elder Sam Ikon took an unprecedented twist last Friday. Just hours after the United States Government revoked its diplomatic visas earlier issued the embattled lawmaker and two of his co- accused colleagues, Hon Mohammed Garba-Gololo (Bauchi State) and Hon Terse Gbillah (Benue State), more than ten European Union (EU) countries including Britain, Germany, France, and Russia followed suit, withdrawing also the diplomatic visas earlier granted the National Assembly members. The sex addicts have been declared persona non grata, thereby loosing their right to be admitted into the affected countries.

Worse still, the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security have simultaneously placed Sam Ikon and his two colleagues on its list of persons on its security watchlist. Though the security categorisation is meant for persons believed to have links with terrorist groups, the lawmakers found themselves on the watchlist as their action emanating from the sex scandal earned them a classification among persons whose action are considered a threat to the American homeland. The classification also empowers authorities in the US to freeze whatever account and assets they might have had in the US.

At the home front, wife of the Akwa Ibom representatives, Mrs Ikon wept profusely when the news broke. An inconsolable and humiliated spouse of the lawmaker lamented that she knew a day will come when her husbands uncontrollable sex escapades will bring shame to the family but regretted she never imagined that it will be in far away United States that will be accompanied with diplomatic sanctions. Unconfirmed reports says she has commenced a divorce process at an Uyo Magistrate Court last Friday. Neither her nor her embattled husband was willing to verified this as at press time.

Mrs Ikon who was said to have endured many embarrassing sex scandals involving her husband since his days as Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly under the Akpabio regime allegedly rejected pleas from friends and family members to withdraw the divorce suit. This is the second time she is invoking legal means to nullify her marriage. The first was in 2014 when she found documents of about 50 prostitutes on the payroll of her husband in their bedroom. Ikon was alleged to have denied the allegation when she confronted him with the list and bank documents, saying the girls were part of a Women Empowerment Programme of the Akpabio regime of which the Assembly was mandated by the then governor to nominate 50 beneficiaries and that the #100,000.00 monthly allowance to the 50 women was paid directly by the Government House to the beneficiaries account and not through his office.

Reacting to the letter by the US Ambassador to Nigeria to the Speaker of the House of Representatives on the sex scandal, a public affairs analysts, Dan Cosmas while speaking to our reporter said there maybe more to the scandal than what the Ambassador was willing to reveal at the moment. He said while it may be possible that the accused might have been committing crimes in other countries, the difference this time is that their action might have been more despicable and possibly criminal than what the US Ambassador was willing to reveal, suspecting that it might have been something worse that possibly undermined American national security in a way prompting the US to react.

“Unfortunately for Sam Ikon, he chooses the wrong country to mess with. Our leaders don’t understand the security and diplomatic implication of some of their actions outside the shores of the country. Any hotel attendant in the United States may be an agent of the American Intelligence community who seduces Nigerian government officials and get information from them when they become drunk and promiscuous. Sending girls after public officials of foreign countries visiting is a covert means of episonage and intelligence gathering by western nations and this is one way Nigerian politicians compromise National Security”.

“The truth is that foreign countries know more about us as a nation than we can imagine. We sometime make the mistake of thinking that ambassadors are here just to submit letters of credence, renew visas, coordinate signing of bilateral agreements etc. It goes beyond that. It also includes covert intelligence gathering through surveillance of some government officials holding sensitive positions which guides them in either relating with us or in shaping their foreign policy towards us and the promiscuous nature of some public officers only makes them easy and vulnerable targets to foreign undercover agents”, he declared.

Continuing, he said, “Apart from acting sexually shameful which Sam Ikon cannot honestly deny because for a person as high as the US Ambassador to Nigeria writing the Speaker of the House officially on the issue means the US have all evidence on the matter, the scandal gets worse with fatal consequences if assuming Sam Ikon was for instance, a member of the House Committee on Intelligence and National Security, the Defence or Interior Minister or any of the Service Chiefs of the Armed Forces. If that was the case, just imagine the volume of classified Intel he will vulnerably and irresponsibly divulge just by being on top of a CIA, FBI or Secret Service undercover agent posing as a prostitute in a US hotel room?”.

He insisted that the scandal calls for more proactive measures beyond the probe ordered by the Speaker to safeguard national security and advocated a sensitization workshop by both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the Nigerian intelligence agencies on some actions of Nigerian public officials that can undermines not just the integrity of their person or office but puts national security at risk or portray the country in bad light.

It could be recalled that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, last Thursday, directed the investigation of three members of the House for an alleged sex scandal.VThe Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, confirmed in Abuja just as investigations had shown that the United States Embassy had cancelled the visas of the affected members.

Namdas explained that the leadership of the House decided to investigate the alleged sex scandal following a formal complaint made by the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle. He said, “We are in receipt of a letter from the US Ambassador, alleging misconduct by some members of the National Assembly, who attended training in the United States of America.

“The leadership of the House has commenced its own part of the investigation. When it is concluded, we will brief Nigerians further on this issue.” Namdas, however, declined questions on how the investigation would be conducted. “When we say we will conduct an investigation, we will conduct it and there will be a report,” Namdas stated.

The development came as the US formally cancelled its visas from the three lawmakers, an indication that they had been barred from future trips to the United States. The Speaker investigations reveal came under pressure from many lawmakers, who felt that the matter could tarnish the image of the National Assembly if it was not attended to.
The affected members – Mr. Mohammed Garba-Gololo (Bauchi State); Mr. Terse Gbillah (Benue State), and Mr. Samuel Ikon (Akwa Ibom State) – allegedly committed the act during a recent trip to the US to participate in the International Visitor Leadership Programme on Good Governance organised by the US Government.

The three legislators were members of a team of 10 lawmakers nominated to attend the leadership programme, which took place in Cleveland, Ohio, between April 7 and 13 this year. Entwistle, in his June 9 letter to Dogara, stated, “It is with regret that I must bring to your attention the following situation.

“Ten members of the Nigerian National Assembly recently travelled to Cleveland, Ohio, as participants in the International Visitor Leadership Programme on good governance. “We received troubling allegations regarding the behaviour of three members of the delegation to the US Government’s flagship professional exchange programme.

“The US Department of State and the Cleveland Council on World Affairs received reports from employees of the Cleveland hotel, where the representatives stayed, alleging that the representatives engaged in the following behaviour: “Mohammed Garba Gololo allegedly grabbed a housekeeper in his hotel room and solicited her for sex. While the housekeeper reported this to her management, this incident could have involved local law enforcement and resulted in legal consequences for Representative Gololo. “Mark Terseer Gbillah and Samuel Ikon allegedly requested that hotel parking attendants assist them to solicit prostitutes.”

Finding showed that the lawmakers dismissed the allegation as “baseless and untrue” when Dogara first sought their explanations. However, he was said to have come under pressure from members, who insisted on a thorough investigation, considering the fact that the Ambassador committed it to writing.

A National Assembly source stated, “The speaker came under pressure because many members are not satisfied with the responses of the affected persons. Another source stated, “Of course, the members have threatened legal actions and have requested video evidence from the US Ambassador since the housekeeper was said to have identified Garba-Gololo in a group photograph.

“Members felt that the House should thoroughly investigate the allegation to establish the correct position. The 8th Assembly passed a Code of Conduct to members of the House in 2015. “This is one of the test cases and it is important that we clear this issue.”

Some of the members, who participated in the programme were Chairman, House Committee on the Diaspora Affairs, Mrs. Rita Orji; Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Gaza Jonathan; Mrs. Ayo Omidiran; Mr. Danburam Abubakar; and Mr. Nkole Ndukwe. The US embassy, it was learnt, had written the three members cancelling their visas to the US.

One of the lawmakers, Gbillah, wrote Entwistle on Thursday (yesterday), accusing the US of not giving the three members fair hearing. Gbillah also expressed surprise in his letter that within hours of bringing the matter to the attention of the House, the US Government had gone ahead to cancel the visas of the lawmakers. He threatened to immediately institute legal actions against the US Government, the Ambassador and the Marriot Hotel Brand, among others for damages.

Part of Gbillah’s letter, which was dated June 16, read, “Without conclusive evidence of any sort or contact with any of the accused individuals, the US State Department and US Embassy in Nigeria have less than six days after your letter to the Speaker, gone ahead to revoke the US visas of the accused individuals based on hearsay from the employees of the hotel in Cleveland.

“Affected individuals received correspondence from the US Embassy on Wednesday, June 15, 2016, indicating the denial of their US visas and requesting that they bring their passports with the current US visa to the Embassy.” The letter was copied to Dogara, the US Secretary of State, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Cleveland Council of World Affairs, and the President and Chief Executive Officer, Marriott International.

On his part, Ikon claimed that the allegation levelled against him was not only untrue but also a case of mistaken identity. He stated, “My attention has been drawn to the publication, alleging an act of impropriety against me by the US Mission in Nigeria.
“I wish to state unequivocally that this is false and definitely not me.
“This, to me, is a case of mistaken identity and I have already instituted measures both legally and diplomatically to clear my name and the institution I represent.

The US Mission in Nigeria refused to comment on Entwistle’s letter on Thursday.
“We do not comment on private diplomatic correspondence. Thank you very much for your inquiry,” the Mission’s Press Attaché, Sean McIntosh, said in an email.

Meanwhile, prominent groups and civil rights activists have described as embarrassing the alleged sexual misconduct of three members of the House of Representatives during their visit to the United States

The groups and individuals, in separate interviews with reporters said if the allegation was established, the affected members should resign or be recalled by their constituents.

The affected lawmakers have, however, denied all the allegations and threatened to sue the ambassador and the US government for “character defamation and a calculated attempt to ridicule the National Assembly.”

But a lawyer and President of Committee for Defence of Human Rights, Mr. Malachy Ugwummadu, described the “scandal as one too many.”Malachy said, “Once again, this has embarrassed our sensibility; it has scandalised us.

“Beyond the report of the scandal, it demands a thorough investigation. It is gratifying that the House of Representatives asked its committee to get to the root of the matter.“The US Ambassador cannot write the report frivolously. If it is established that the allegations against the lawmakers are true, the legislators should be recalled by their constituents as provided for under the Constitution.” He also said they should be prosecuted either in Nigeria or in the US depending on available evidence.

Another lawyer and rights activist, Mr. Jiti Ogunye, who made a similar call, dismissed the threat of legal action by the legislators.
He said the legislators would have a tough case to make as the US Ambassador would not have made the allegation without evidence.

Ogunye said, “The allegation of attempt of immoral dalliance and consummation of prostitution in the US levelled against the members of the House of Representatives is very disturbing. “Our legislators are globally notorious for earning more than they deserve paradoxically, in a country where the people are living in largely below the poverty line.

“However, the allegation of going to the US to procure illicit sex has added further insult to our injury. “We hope that the allegation is not true. But what is expected to debunk the allegation is the laughable threat of instituting legal action against a diplomat that has diplomatic immunity that cannot be sued here by the legislators. “If the allegation is established, the legislators should resign from office. And if they remain in office they should be barred from embarking on foreign trips so that they will not further disgrace Nigeria.”

Another prominent lawyer, Mr. Wahab Shittu, said the scandal was a reflection of Nigeria’s collapsing value system.

Shittu said, “I think the scandal is a reflection of our collapsing value system. The case should not be swept under the carpet. The Nigerian government should have interest in this matter because it borders on our international image and integrity. It borders on our integrity and our image and it should be treated as such. “If the legislators are indicted and their allegations and found to be guilty, they should be recalled by their constituents if they don’t have the courage to resign.”

On his part, the National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, urged the House to suspend those involved. He stated, “The House of Representatives must launch an investigation into the allegations and possibly suspend the characters, pending the outcome of the investigation.

“If a guilt verdict is established, they should be made to vacate their seats as a deterrence to other wayward characters. The issue deserves investigation because America would have no reason to single out three of them out of 10 for these serious allegations.”

Also a US-based activist, Smart Ajaja, in an interview with one of our correspondents, said the allegation gave every responsible Nigerian residing in America a cause for concern.

“The incident of sexual misconduct, especially rape or attempted rape, when reported, is a grievous offense and regardless of who you are, you will be made to face the full weight of the applicable law if and when a firm case to that effect is established against you,” he said.

According to him prostitution, though a lesser sexual misconduct falling under the misdemeanour categorisation, is illegal in most states of the US.

Ajaja stated, “It is also interesting that there are now some Nigerian women-pimps who specialise in arranging fellow Nigerian women including vulnerable married women looking for contracts, cash and connections in Nigeria, for interested visiting Nigerian politicians to the US.”

When contacted, the US Embassy in Nigeria refused to respond to request for further information on the alleged involvement of three members of House of Representatives in sex scandal in Cleveland, US.

An email request on Saturday on the next step being taken by the US government on the scandal did not receive a positive response from the mission in Abuja.

The mission Press Attaché, Sean McIntosh, insisted that the embassy would not comment on “private diplomatic correspondence.”

McIntosh said, “Again, we decline to comment on private diplomatic correspondence. Visa records are confidential per the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act.”

(C) Global Concord, Uyo

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