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‘Slapping Senator’ Abbo to pay N50m for assaulting a nursing mother
BY NICHOLAS ABE
A Federal High Court Abuja Monday ordered Senator Elisha Abbo (Adamawa North, PDP), who slapped a nursing mother repeatedly at a sex toy shop in Abuja, on May 11, 2019, to pay the sum of N50 million, to the lady, Osimibibra Warmate, for assault.
The is coming weeks after a Magistrate Court in Zuba, Abuja, acquitted the youthful lawmaker of assault instituted against him by the police.
Abbo was caught by a close circuit television (CCTV) camera, inside the adult toy shop assaulting Warmate.
Magistrate Abdullahi Ilelah who had upheld a no-case submission filed by Abbo said the police failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the lawmaker assaulted Warmate, a copy of the judgment said.
Warmate and a police officer Mary Daniel, who investigated the matter, had testified against Abbo.
The youngest senator in the country was said to have entered a sex toy shop around 6pm, with three young 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 and not inside her shop.
Abbo, who was said to be agitated by the sudden illness of the girl, was said to have accused the shop owner of poisoning the store’s air conditioner.
READ: Unruly Senator Abbo apologises, begs for forgiveness
The shop owner’s argument that if the air conditioner had been contaminated others in the shop would have also taken ill was said to have angered Abbo, and the two began exchanging words over the matter.
The senator was said to have called a policeman who he then ordered to arrest the shop owner.
The shop owner quickly called her father to inform him that Abbo had called police over the matter and that she was about to be taken away.
The shop owner’s friend, Warmate, who had been standing nearby tried to intervene by pleading with the second man to take things easy but was slapped repeatedly by the lawmaker.
Abbo, 41, had days after the ugly development which drew harsh criticisms from various quarters apologised for his action.
He acknowledged that regardless of the provocation, his action did not portray him a good ambassador of the Senate, the PDP and the youths of Nigeria.
“It is with a deep sense of remorse and responsibility that I, Senator Ishaku Abbo, profoundly apologize to all Nigerians, the Senate, the People’s Democratic Party, my family as well as our mothers – the Nigerian women.
“I personally apologize to Babra (the lady he reportedly assaulted) and her family for my action which has brought immense discomfort to our body polity.”