Controversial Senator who assaulted woman defects to APC, says it’s ‘movement of God’s people’ from opposition party

MSenator representing Adamawa North Senatorial District, Ishaku Abbo, on Wednesday defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.

Abbo, who gained notoriety for beating up a woman in an adult toy shop last year, and fined N50 million by an FCT High Court over the assault, conveyed his decision in a letter dated November 25th, 2020, and read during the start of plenary by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan. 

Curiously, neither the PDP nor the APC weighed in while the assault scandal by Abbo lasted, but are now bickering over him. PDP is already threatening Abbo lose his seat for dumping the opposition party.

On a popular radio programme today, callers traded words over the N50 million fine imposed on Abbo two months ago.

Senator Abbo described his defection from the PDP to the ruling party as a “movement of God’s people”, attributing same to the mismanagement of the opposition party in Adamawa State by Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri. 

The letter reads in part: I write to formally inform you Sir, the Senate and indeed Nigerians of my defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“This is as a result of the mismanagement of the PDP by Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri in Adamawa State which led to the crisis in the party that in turn led to the polarization of the party in the state (PDP and rPDP).”

“Today, I join the APC and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari to build the Nigeria of our dreams. 

“The journey may be long, but we are on the right track as I strongly believe that by the end of the tenure of Mr. President, Nigeria will be a better place,” Senator Abbo stated.

He added that, “in the history of Nigeria’s nascent democracy, specifically from 1999 till date, no President has paid attention to the welfare of Nigerian citizens like President Buhari.”

Last September, according to The Guardian, an FCT High Court fined Nigeria’s youngest senator Elisha Abbo caught on camera physically assaulting a woman at an adult toy shop in Abuja.

Delivering judgment on Monday, the judge found Abbo, representing Adamawa North Senatorial District, guilty and ordered him to pay N50 million to the complainant, Osimibibra Warmate.

Nelson Onuoha, a member of the team of lawyers that filed a civil suit against the lawmaker, told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday.

”Remember that video of a Nigerian senator slapping/assaulting a young lady at a shop? Well justice was served today with the court slamming the sum of N50M against the Senator. I am delighted to have represented that young lady in this suit. We say no more to oppression,” Onuoha said on Twitter.

PremiumTimes in 2019 reported the incident about how Abbo descended on the woman after she pleaded with him not to physically assault the shopowner whom the senator had accused of insulting him. He said the shopowner called him a drunk.

It said it exclusively obtained the video of the assault, which occurred on May 11 — nearly three months after Abbo became a senator-elect and a month before he was sworn-in on June 11.

The attack happened as an armed mobile police officer looked on, and instead made attempt to arrest the victim.

The assault was reported on May 14 at the Maitama Area 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.

He was later arraigned by the police before a magistrate court in Zuba, on a one-count charge for assaulting Warmate.

But despite video evidence of the incident, Abdullahi Ilelah, the magistrate, upheld the no-case submission filed by the lawmaker and dismissed the case.

However, Warmate proceeded to file a fundamental rights suit marked CV/2393/19 before the FCT high court, which has now ruled in her favour