He
said neither his office nor the 360-member legislature would rush to pass
judgement on its Deputy Chairman, Committee on Petroleum Resources
(Upstream), Mr. Mark Gbillah ( APC, Benue); Mr. Samuel Ikon (PDP, Akwa Ibom);
and Mr. Mohammed Garba-Gololo (APC, Bauchi), who are the accused lawmakers.
Dogara
in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Turaki
Hassan, in Abuja on Saturday, also advised Nigerians to borrow a leaf from him
by not condemning the three embattled members until the outcome of an
investigation by the House.
“Judgement
can only be passed when an allegation is proven,” Dogara maintained.
According
to the speaker, he still believes that the three lawmakers would have known the
implications of bringing “dishonour” to Nigeria by committing any of the
alleged acts.
The
speaker expressed the readiness of the House to work with the US Embassy in
Nigeria to unravel the truth and punish offenders when proven guilty, but
maintained that until the investigation proved their guilt, the three members
were free and innocent citizens.
In
a related development, in a series of tweets on Saturday, the Speaker staunchly
rose to the defence of the lawmakers saying that the US should provide proof of
the allegations of sexual misconduct against the House members.
When
asked by a Twitter user, Poju, @pojugreat, who should provide evidence of
sexual misconduct against the lawmaker, Dogara tweeted, “He who alleges must
prove. That’s the law.
“As
we speak, no evidence has been put forward other than the letter sent to my
office and copied to many others.”
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Politics