Assault: Police May Arraign Senator Abbo Tomorrow

 

Barring any procedural delay, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command may charge Senator Elisha Abbo to court tomorrow.

The senator is being investigated by the police following an assault captured on CCTV in Abuja, where he slapped a sales girl repeatedly in a sex toy shop.

He was detained over the weekend and later released after meeting conditions for an administrative bail.

The action of the newly-elected senator had sparked protests and calls for his arrest and prosecution by human rights groups.

The Senate and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had set up committees to probe the senator's ‘outrageous’ conduct.

Abbo had also at a press conference in Abuja pleaded for forgiveness on his conduct.

In a chat with journalists on Sunday, the FCT Police Commissioner, Bala Ciroma, said the senator may be charged to court today.

He said the lawmaker was granted administrative bail after meeting some conditions.

"I cannot give you an outright answer, but tomorrow, if we are going to charge him, we will reach out to you.

"We will tell you the court so that you can go and cover it. There is no way we can charge him before 12 noon, so give us time," the police boss said.

Ciroma said Abbo was granted bail in accordance with the law, adding: "He did not spend the weekend with us, and we tried to be law-abiding as you demand of us."

The FCT police commissioner did not give specific terms of the bail, but a police source said they were “stringent enough to secure his return to the investigators as may be necessary."

It was gathered that Abbo was released because the victim of the assault had travelled out of Abuja to attend the burial of a deceased family member.

Ciroma had said he would carry out a thorough investigation into the matter in order to give all parties fair hearing and see that justice is done.

He said a forensic analysis of the video would be carried out as part of the investigation, insisting that “we need to do a forensic analysis of the CCTV footage that is in circulation.”

The Inspector-General of Police (IG), Mohammed Adamu, had directed the FCT Police Command to investigate the assault case following the public outcry that trailed it.