Lawmakers to sue US govt, ex Ambassador for falsely accusing them

chika ebuzor

October 15, 2016 4:32 PM

The three lawmakers who were allegedly involved in the sex scandal, were cleared of any wrong-doing by the House.

Nigeria's House of representatives

The three lawmakers who were accused of indecent sexual behaviour during their stay in the United States, have announced that they will pursue legal redress.

In June 2016, the ex US Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle accused the three members of the House of Representatives some improper acts while on an official visit.

The Green Chambers recently cleared the three lawmakers who were allegedly involved in the sex scandal in the United States, of any wrong-doing.

According to one of the lawmakers involved, Terse Mark-Gbillah, he and his colleagues will sue the former US Ambassador, the Marriot Hotel and the US Embassy for damages.

He added that “In the American archives, the records have not been set straight. As a matter of fact, this has already affected the members of one of our families.

“We will be seeking legal redress in the US; we are going to take the hotel to court, the Marriot Hotel, the parent brand, the place we stayed (in the US). We are going to take the (former US) ambassador himself and the US State Department, who are his employers to court. We are going to be taking the local organisers of the programme to court as well.

“We will be seeking among other things, an internationally-published apology to us as individuals, to the National Assembly and to Nigeria by the US Government.

“We are going to be seeking damages from all concerned parties and right now, we are looking at suing in the region of $1bn.

“Already, contacts have been made with various law firms in the US. We want to use a very reputable law firm.

“You can now see that the revocation of our visas is now hindering our ability to visit the US physically to do the ground work. We are liaising with our lawyers via email messages and telephone calls.

“The lawyers will still advise us on whether to ask for damages of up to $10bn because the damage they did to us can’t be quantified in financial terms.”

ALSO READ: House clears 3 accused lawmakers

The accused lawmakers are: House Deputy Chairman, Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Terse Mark-Gbillah, Samuel Ikon; and Mohammed Garba-Gololo.

chika ebuzor