Nigerian Resigns As U.S. Rep After Defending Biden

*Insists Former Vice President’s Sex Abuse Allegation Politically Motivated

A Nigerian refugee who became a House of Representatives member in the U.S state of New Hampshire has said he resigned from his position so that his tweet defending former U.S Vice President Joe Biden over a sexual abuse allegation will not cause further outcry.

Richard Komi, an Ogoni man and a supporter of Biden, the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee, quit the post Friday night after he criticized Tara Reade, the accuser and a former staffer who said the then Senator Biden sexually abused her by putting his fingers in her vagina while working for the former VP.

He told our correspondent on Monday morning that he vacated his seat so that the national debate in the U.S should be based on more important issues surrounding electing “a better President” for the country instead of a discussion of his tweet.

He, however, insisted that the allegation was politically motivated because the opponents of the former Vice President have observed his chances of becoming the President “are brighter, beating the current President in polls and all the states.”

“I am sure Vice President Joe Biden would not do anything of this nature. He co-authored a bill to protect victims of sex abuse around the time this incident purportedly took place. Stepping down, I have made my point clear to the world,” he added.

Komi had tweeted that Reade, must have cooperated with the former Vice President for such an act to have happened, “judging by the position of the female vagina.”

In the now deleted tweet, Komi, a Democrat representing Hillsborough—District 43, Manchester, submitted that “it will not be easy for anyone to just put their finger into the vagina unless there is some Cooperation from the female herself. That is why I believe Tara Reade’s allegations is false. She is looking for attention.”

The former legislator’s comments were greeted with condemnation and the state’s House Speaker, Steve Shurtleff, also reportedly asked Komi to resign, with the Speaker saying he was appalled by Representative Komi’s comments.

“The Speaker asked me to step down but did not tell me I must do so. I stepped down because I did not want the brouhaha to continue or to follow the tweet. The rationale is for me not being in the way. It is best for me to step down for now,” he told National Wire.

Komi left Nigeria in 1996 to live in Benin Republic during a running battle between the military government and his Ogoni tribe over oil exploration and its impact on the environment in the Niger Delta region of the country.

He came to the United States in 1999 and was elected into the state House of Representatives in November 2008. He served till 2010 and lost reelection. Komi was serving a second term in the House before taking the position that cost him the seat.