Senator Elisha Abbo (Adamawa North), has been acquitted of assault charges by a magistrate court in Zuba after he was caught beating a woman in a sex toy store in Abuja.
Senator Abbo featured in a viral video in May, 2019, assaulting a woman in a sex toy shop identified as Osimibibra Warmate.
Senator Abbo also apologized to the victim during a televised press conference after a public outcry.
The Magistrate, Abdullahi Ilelah upheld that there was a no-case submission because the police could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the lawmaker indeed assaulted the young woman on May 11, 2019.
The prosecution called two witnesses including the woman who was assaulted, Warmate and ASP Mary Daniel who investigated the case.
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While giving her testimony, Warmate told the court that she had gone to visit a friend, Kemi at Pleasure Chest Intimacy gadget shop, located at Banex plaza, Wuse 2, Abuja on May, 11, 2019 when Elisha Abbo walked in company of three women.
She said further that one of the women in the Senator’s entourage started vomiting and fainted after a while. She informed the court that when she left the shop, she was called back by her friend who appealed for her help because the Senator accused her of being responsible for the ill-health of one of the women in his entourage and threatened to arrest her.
She said a police officer and other man barged into the shop while she was cleaning the vomit from the floor of the store. At this point the senator told the men to arrest Kemi who picked up her phone to inform her father that she was being arrested.
“As one of the men moved to take the phone, I begged him and said it was her father that she was talking to. Then the defendant (Abbo) pounced on me, punched me on my face and in the eye. He slapped me several times and asked me why I interfered,” She said further.
“He said he would make me a scapegoat for interfering and asked the two men to arrest me. The defendant (Abbo) pulled me by the hair and pushed me downstairs and to a car. I called my mother and I was being arrested.
“While in the car, the people on the premises told the defendant (Abbo) that he needed to report to the police on the premises before he could leave but the defendant (Abbo) refused and the security guards in the plaza had to lock the gate.”
The victim also testified that Senator Abbo only let her go after much pleading from her mother. She said she felt severe pains after the assault and had to visit a hospital before reporting the matter to the police.
Under cross-examination, the victim debunked rumours that she was a nursing mother at the time the incident occurs. She also admitted that she did not personally record the video of the incident.