Chinelo Obogo and Fred Itua, Abuja
Senator Elisha Abbo, representing Adamawa North District, has admitted that he is the man seen in a viral video physically assaulting a woman in a sex toy shop in Abuja but maintained that the video was distorted.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker, who is the youngest senator in the ninth National Assembly, was seen in a 10-minute video footage repeatedly slapping a 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.
During the assault, which occurred on May 11, 2019, nearly three months after he became senator-elect, an armed police officer looked on, but made no attempt to arrest the senator.
Abbo was reported to have entered the shop at about 6pm in the company of three women to purchase adult toys, but shortly after they began shopping for the toys, one of the three girls started throwing up.
She vomited multiple times, prompting the shop owner to remark that the woman should have vomited outside since she was not a child.
Abbo, who was said to be agitated by the sudden illness of one of his girls, was said to have accused the shop owner of poisoning the store’s air conditioner. The shop owner’s argument that if the air conditioner had been contaminated, others in the shop would have also taken ill further angered Abbo and the two began exchanging words over the matter.
A report was made on May 14 at the Maitama Area Police Command Headquarters on Nile Street, but the police told the victim to go look for Abbo’s telephone number or they would not be able to do anything about it.
Reacting to the video, Abbo told Daily Sun that the video was distorted, saying it did not tell the full story. He also claimed that the incident happened when he was not a senator and explained that an aspect of the video where his sister collapsed and was rushed out in an ambulance was cut off by those who recorded the incident. He said an appropriate explanation would be offered soon where he will state his own side of what transpired.
“There is a video of me on social media. Let me state very clear that when it happened, I was not a senator. It happened a long time ago. There is an aspect of that video that they took off. They didn’t show where my sister who accompanied me there collapsed and had to be rushed out in an ambulance. But we will provide our own response soon,” Abbo said.