Ummmm power drunk, animal! Nigeria's youngest senator
has been caught on camera physically assaulting a woman at an adult toy shop in
Abuja.
Elisha Abbo, representing
Adamawa North Senatorial District, descended on the woman after she pleaded
with him not to physically assault the shop-owner whom the senator had accused
of insulting him. He said the shop-owner called him a drunk.
The video of the assault,
which occurred on May 11 -- nearly three months after Mr Abbo became a
senator-elect and a month before he was sworn-in on June 11.
The attack happened as an
armed mobile police officer looked on, and instead made attempt to arrest the
victim.
The assault was reported on
May 14 at the Maitama Area Command Headquarters on Nile Street, but the police
told the victim to go look for Mr Abbo's telephone number or they would not be
able to do anything about it, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.
The victim of the assault
and the storeowner declined comments for this story, saying they were afraid
there could be a violent backlash from the senator. The victim's lawyer also
declined comment.
But witnesses and other
sources familiar with the matter told PREMIUM TIMES their accounts of what
happened. They all declined to be identified, citing fears for their safety.
Mr Abbo, a member of the
opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had entered the shop at about 6:00
p.m. on May 11, a Saturday. The senator walked in with three young women to
purchase adult toys, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.
But shortly after they
began shopping for the toys, one of the three girls brought in by Mr Abbo
started throwing up. She vomited multiple times, prompting the shopowner to
remark that the woman should have vomited outside and not inside her shop,
especially since she was not a child.
Mr Abbo, who was said to be
agitated by the sudden illness of one of his girls, was said to have accused
the shopowner of poisoning the store's airconditioner.
The shopowner's argument
that if the airconditioner had been contaminated others in the shop would have
also taken ill further angered Mr Abbo, and the two began exchanging words over
the matter.
In the first five minutes
of the 10-minute video obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Abbo is seen sitting on a
yellow power generator near the entrance of the shop. He could be heard within
this time making calls and asking some people where they were and how close
they were.
Just before the first-half
of the video, an armed police officer walked in. Mr Abbo explained to the
officer in Hausa that the woman insulted him and that he had called the
assistant inspector-general (AIG) over the matter, who then assured him that he
would call the police commissioner to call the Maitama Area Command. He also
said he was disappointed in the shopowner, with whom he said he had been
friends for five years.
Mr Abbo, 41, said the
police officer should take the shop-owner away. The shop-owner quickly called her
father to inform him that Mr Abbo had called the police over the matter and
that she was about to be taken away.
Mr Abbo asked the shop-owner
to stop the call because he was talking to her, a demand the woman refused to
accede to. Another man could be seen coming from behind the police officer to
snatch the shop-owner's phone from her.
Next, the shop-owner's
friend who had been standing nearby tried to intervene by pleading with the
second man to take things easy.
"Oga, please take it
easy now," she said.
Mr Abbo switfly descended
on the shop-owner's friend, saying she was "very stupid" and slapping
her repeatedly, including directly on the eyes.
The senator then demanded
that the two women should be taken to the police station. He repeatedly told
the shop-owner that he was disappointed in her for calling him a drunk, and that
he would have harmed her more and closed down the shop but for their
friendship.
The morning after
PREMIUM TIMES learned that
the assaulted woman, who is nursing a child, was taken to a hospital, where she
was treated for eye inflammation and other injuries she sustained during the
attack.
Mr Abbo did not cover the
medical bill. Neither did he show sympathy or reach out to the woman to
apologise, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.
Instead, he was said to
have returned to the shop to see whether a CCTV footage of the incident
existed.
Mr Abbo was told that the CCTV in the shop was not functioning. He was said to
have been very worried about the incident, threatening to deal with them if the
footage of his violence ever surfaced.
The victim and her lawyer
reported the matter at the Maitama Area Command since May 14, but the police
have continued to stall, saying they did not know how to contact Mr Abbo.
The victim and her lawyer
were said to have demanded apology from Mr Abbo. They also want him to settle
the medical bill and desist from further threats of physical harm against the
woman.
They also wanted a criminal
investigation and possible prosecution of Mr Abbo for his action.
Mr Abbo did not respond to
PREMIUM TIMES' requests for comments. Two text messages and WhatsApp messages
sent to him delivered, but he did not return them. He also did not take
multiple calls to his telephone.
The police commissioner in
charge of the Federal Capital Territory, Bala Ciroma, told said the matter had not been escalated to him as of Tuesday morning.
He said he would like to
receive the victim at his office urgently to explore a resolution of the case.
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