Police Set To Arraign Senator Elisha Abbo Over Assault

The Nigeria Police Force is set to arraign Senator Elisha Abbo (PDP-Adamawa North) this week for allegedly assaulting a nursing mother at a sex toy shop.

Naija News recalls that Abbo, Nigeria’s youngest Senator, was caught on CCTV beating up a woman following a brief argument.

The viral video generated outrage among Nigerians with activists marching to the Force Headquarters and the National Assembly to demand Abbo’s prosecution for assault.

However, Senator Abbo last week apologized for his conduct, promising not to behave in such manner again.

The Federal Capital Territory Police Command interrogated the lawmaker on Thursday and subsequently detained him for 24 hours.

He was released on bail on Friday and directed to return for further questioning this week.

According to The Punch, the Police had planned to arraign Abbo on Friday but shelved the move due to the inability of the investigators to obtain the original footage of the assault from the Closed Circuit Television camera which captured the incident.

A police source said: “Our preliminary investigation has indicted the senator and the plan was to arraign him on Friday for assault but the detectives were not able to obtain the original video from the CCTV which we needed to vet to ensure that it had not been manipulated. So, the arraignment would hold this week.”

Another source explained that the police did not want to rush the arraignment to avoid mistakes or legal loopholes that could be exploited by Abbo’s lawyer.

He added, “We don’t want to sacrifice diligent investigation on the altar of speed. Rather, we want to strike a balance between the need to charge him to court timeously and the need to do the right thing.

“When you are investigating a case involving a high calibre person, you have to be sure you have a watertight case, because the accused would hire the best lawyers who could exploit every technicality and loophole to get their client off the hook.”