Victims of Abbo’s assault ‘fail to honour invitation of senate panel’

The senate committee investigating the alleged misconduct of Elisha Abbo, senator representing Adamawa north, says that the victims of the assault did not honour its invitation.

Sam Egwu, chairman of the panel, made this known during plenary, on Wednesday.

The senate had setup a committee to investigate the assault by one of its members after the video of Abbo attacking a nursing mother at a sex toy shop in Abuja went viral.

The committee was given two weeks to present its report.

During plenary on Wednesday, Egwu said more time will be needed by the committee to complete its job.

He said efforts to make the assaulted lady and the shop owner appear before the committee did not yield result.

Egwu said Abbo; the commissioner of police in charge of FCT; and the lawyers to the victims, refused to make submissions before the panel on the excuse that the matter was already in court.

“We set out to do the investigation and in the course of that, we invited all the people that are involved,” he said.

“We invited our colleague and he made it clear to us that he was invited by the police and the case is already in court and therefore, it is sub judice.”

The chairman requested more time for the committee to investigate the matter.

He said “because it is subjudice, we want to wait until the court has taken their decision.”

Ahmad Lawan, senate president, rejected the request on the grounds that the senate is investigating the misconduct of its member and not the criminality of the offence.

“It is not our concern. We are not investigating criminal activities. We are investigating misconduct. The senate is not investigating what the police is investigating,” he said.

“We can give you more time but we can’t stop our activities because the matter is in court.”

The senate granted one-week extension for the committee to submit its report.

After public outcry, Abbo had tendered an apology over the incident, describing himself as an “ambassador of Christ.”

Despite the apology, the senator pleaded not guilty to a one-count charge of assault filed against him by the police.