Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Coalition of Civil Society Groups (CCSG) says that Senator Elisha Abbo (PDP, Adamawa North), who was caught on camera assaulting a clerk at an adult store, should be commended for swiftly apologising, even as it condemned the shocking act.
The CCSG claims that the released video “was suspicious and that it was done to victimise Abbo because of his minority status in the Red Chamber, saying if those threatening to arrest him are genuinely concern, they should also arrest other top government officials with a similar offence.”
Related: NCWS rejects Sen. Abbo’s apology, writes UN
CCSG President Kingsley Nwagwu and Secretary-General Abubakar Ibrahim, said in a statement:
“We have watched with keen interest several comments credited to several commentators on the alleged assault video released by an online platform involving Sen. Elisha Abbo, with most calling him out along partisan basis. This we out rightly condemn as we have long expected a better robust angle to it.
“He swiftly responded to the alleged tape and tendered an open apology on the subject matter without been forced or compelled to do so. This act alone of accepting the wrongs allegedly said to have been committed without been compelled to is a clear indication that we now have a new set of Nigeria leaders in the new generations of political class coming up now unlike the older generation who has never deemed it fit to apologise nor retract the wrongs done at some point in time.
“We thus see this act as a good sense of humour that should be acknowledged and urge others that have afflicted our common heritage at a time to come up and tender public apology. This, no doubt, coming from Senator Abbo is a clear example of new generation of leaders who are not full of themselves nor allow power to intoxicate them.
“Our findings further reveals that, even though we didn’t support the alleged assault, the rationale behind releasing the said video was suspicious; we discovered also that the lady in question was not even a nursing mother as alleged by the nay sayers.
“The worrisome part of it all, was that the alleged video was recorded before inauguration of 9th Assembly but they preferred to wait till now.”