Assault: Elisha Abbo appears before Senate committee

A senator, Elisha Abbo, caught on camera assaulting a woman, has appeared before a Senate committee set up to investigate the incident.

Mr Abbo appeared before the Senate ad-hoc committee on Tuesday afternoon.

The Adamawa senator, however, refused to take an oath before the panel. He also refused to speak in the presence of journalists.

Persons invited before Senate committees are made to take oaths to pledge to say the truth before they are allowed to testify.

The lawmaker and members of the committee exchanged words when Mr Abbo insisted he would address the panel before taking an oath.

Oluremi Tinubu, a member of the committee, had asked Mr Abbo to swear an oath before saying anything. But he bluntly refused; saying the case was in court.

“This matter is in court. I cannot be talking in front of cameras when the matter is already in court. That’s subjudice,” he said.

“Distinguished. You just joined us. We have a procedure and we are also under law. You don’t come in here and dictate to us what should be done,” Mrs Tinubu told the opposition senator.

“You are on the other side now. You don’t tell us what to do…because we can suspend you,” she added.

An angry Mr Abbo promptly interjected “I will not sit here and listen to you threaten me with suspension. I am a senator like you. You cannot threaten me with suspension.”

There was chaos which lasted for some minutes. Journalists were thereafter asked to the leave for the meeting to continue behind closed doors.

The police arraigned the Adamawa senator before a court on Monday and granted him bail of N5 million.