…Many Want Him Prosecuted, Recalled by Constituents A trending video showing a Senator beating up a woman said to be a nursing mother, in a sex toy shop in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, has sparked outrage and shock, with many calling for his prosecution and ouster as a lawmaker. In the video, published exclusively by Premium
…Many Want Him Prosecuted, Recalled by Constituents
A trending video showing a Senator beating up a woman said to be a nursing mother, in a sex toy shop in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, has sparked outrage and shock, with many calling for his prosecution and ouster as a lawmaker.
In the video, published exclusively by Premium Times, Senator Ishaku Cliff Elisha Abbo, who represents Adamawa North Senatorial District, is shown launching a brutal attack on a woman who tried to stop him from assaulting another woman attending to customers in the shop.
The Senator physically assaulted the daughter of the owner of the shop, simply identified as Kemi, and her friend who was with her at the time of the incident which took place at the time prayers were being offered in a nearby mosque on May 11, a month before Abbo, the youngest lawmaker in the Red Chamber was inaugurated alongside others.
Kemi’s friend, who was pleading for calm when policemen invited by the Senator arrived, received several slaps to the face, a development that landed the nursing mother in the hospital.
The Senator accused the shop attendant of insulting him and asked a policeman with him to arrest her. Obviously concerned for her safety, the attendant made a call and tried to inform someone about what was happening.
But this only angered the Senator who ordered her to stop the call. Things took a violent turn when a man with the lawmaker tried to smack the phone away from the shop attendant’s hand and another woman who was watching the drama intervened.
The Senator became livid and launched an attack on the woman who had only urged them to “take it easy”, slapping and hitting her before ordering the policeman to arrest.
As the policeman did his bidding, dragging her away despite the pleas of the shop attendant who was the initial target, the Senator continued his assault.
The assault, which happened on May 11 according to the Premium Times report, has led to shock and outrage.
Amnesty International is among those that have called for the incident to be investigated.
“This must be investigated. Victims of his violence must get justice,” the human rights organization said in another tweet about the attack.
Actress Kate Henshaw was among celebrities who have also condemned the action declaring the assault unacceptable.
Many more Nigerians and activists condemned the assault and demanded justice for the victim. They also urged the Senate to act on the matter and demanded the dismissal of the policeman involved.
While confirming that he was the one in the video, Senator Abbo told Channels Television that he would release an official statement in reaction to the assault video.
“We will be releasing statement maybe tomorrow afternoon,” he said, adding that the incident happened before he became a Senator.
Aside that, Abbo claimed that the roughly 10-minute video was incomplete and that he was at the shop because his sister had earlier been assaulted there and that part was left out.
He said, “We will soon release an official statement to the viral video which happened before I became a Senator where my younger sister was beaten to a pulp in a shop and I was called upon there; where I had to call an ambulance and the police to come to the scene and it got out of hand, I was also assaulted”.
“It is an old video, but we will soon release a statement to that effect. It was my sister that was at the store and she was assaulted; in fact, she fainted in the shop but they compressed the video and cut that part out of it”.
“They took her out to resuscitate her, the one standing with a cap is a doctor, the doctor had to come to give her life. My sister is not in the video, it was completely cropped out of it.”
Senator Abbo said he would be demanding the release of the full recording.
“This is a political season and now I am a politician, before I was not a politician but now the reality of the fact is that I am now a politician and politicians are not people who are liked, they exhume things of 20 years and they hang it on their neck now,” he said.
“As I said before, we will release a robust response to everything, and we will also ask for the entire video to be released since they have the video. We will seat and discuss about the video. Just to be clear that video was taken long before now and it was released just as this point.”
In the CCTV video, the Senator however, did not mentioned anything about his sister being assaulted. The video showed him seated in the shop for a while as activities went on. He then got on the phone, walked out of the office for a bit, came back in and sat down.
Four minutes into the video, he received another call. Shortly after, a policeman came in and he informed the policeman, that the shop attendant is his friend but that she insulted him.
“She is not my enemy; she is my friend. We are not enemies; she is my friend and I have known her for over five years. But she insulted me. She said I am drunk, I am stupid and I am mad,” he said before asking the policeman to take her away.
As he was speaking to the policeman, the lady made a call to inform her father about what was going on, but the move angered Abbo, who ordered her to stop the call.
As she tried to round off the call, another man with Abbo tried to slap the phone away, prompting another woman in the shop to intervene.
After the woman asked the man to “take it easy”, Abbo flew into a rage and attacked her.
The assault has attracted widespread condemnation, emerging as a top trend on social media with more than 100,000 tweets dedicated to it, many of them declaring the action as unacceptable, shameful, and criminal and demanding that the authorities, particularly the Police and the Senate, should act.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Mohammed Adamu, has ordered the arrest of the Senator and his orderly by an investigative team set up by the Police Force headquarters in Abuja.
Investigations are currently ongoing at the Federal Capital Territory Police Command into the alleged attack on a sales girl by a serving Senator in Abuja.
The news of the attack went viral after a video recorded by the Close Circuit Television (CCTV), installed in the shop was shared on the social media, an act which is said to have embarrassed the police authorities.
The Police force says they are doing everything within their powers to restore dignity to the force, following the conduct of the police orderly attached to the Senator.
According to Police sources, the incident actually happened in a sex-toy shop in Abuja, where the Senator had gone to make purchases.
The video which has been circulating on the internet shows the angry senator beat up the sales girl and ordered his police orderly to take her away.
The Nigerian Senate has also set up a committee to probe the alleged assault on a lady by Senator Elias Abbo.
Senate President, Ahmed Lawan on Wednesday set up the committee, which has two weeks to submit its report.
There have however been calls from members of the public that the Senate must suspend him, and his constituents should recall him.
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has also summoned the embattled Senator who defeated Senator Binta Garba of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the last election, over the incident..
In a statement on Wednesday, the PDP said the attention of the NWC of the party had been drawn to a CCTV footage relating to allegations of malfeasance by a Senator elected on the platform of the party, Senator Elisha Abbo.
“The PDP, as a law-abiding and upstanding party, detests and completely condemn such act of lawlessness and callousness as exhibited in the video and will therefore never condone it. Our party is also shocked that the harmless victim of the unprovoked assault is said to be a nursing mother, who ought to be protected.
“Though this is a personal conduct of an individual which has no bearing with the culture of our party, the PDP however holds that no responsible person will condone such an attitude. In the light of this, the NWC has commenced investigation into the matter and summons Senator Elisha Abbo in line with the provisions of the Constitution of the PDP and code of conduct of our members,” the statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan, National Publicity Secretary of the party said.
Also, the party said it had taken note of the immediate action taken by the Senate, adding that the PDP, at all levels of engagement, is reputed for her utmost respect and commitment towards the rights, safety and well-being of citizens, particularly women and could not tolerate any callous assault on any Nigerian.
“The PDP therefore assures Nigerians that it will always stand on the side of justice and will never spare a thought in taking action on any of its members found wanting, particularly those elected or appointed into public offices,” it said.
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