The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Maitama, Abuja, has, on Monday, awarded N50m damages against the senator representing Adamawa North, Elisha Abbo.
The sum is to be paid as compensation to a female attendant at a sex-toy shop, Osimibibra Warmate, whom he assaulted.
Justice Samira Bature gave the order in her judgment on the fundamental rights enforcement suit instituted by Warmate against the senator.
The police had in 2019 charged the lawmaker before a magistrate court in Zuba, Abuja , with one count of assaulting Warmate at a sex-toy shop in Abuja.
Abdullahi Ilelah, the presiding magistrate, however, dismissed the case after upholding the no-case submission filed by the senator.
Through her legal team including Esosa Omo-Usoh and Nelson Onuoha, Warmatewent on to sue Abbo in a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed before the FCT High Court and marked FCT/CV/2393/19.
Justice Bature upheld the plaintiff’s case in a judgment on Monday by ordering the senator to pay N50m to the applicant.
Abbo had attracted criticisms from a large section of Nigerians after being caught on video slapping a nursing mother repeatedly at a sex toy shop in the Wuse 2 area of Abuja.
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The assault, which reportedly occurred on May 11, 2019, was done in the presence of an armed policeman who, rather than assist the victim, arrested her.
Abbo, who is the youngest senator in the country, had entered the shop around 6:00 p.m. on May 11, a Saturday. The senator walked in with three young women to purchase adult toys.
But shortly after they began shopping for the toys, one of the three ladies brought in by Mr Abbo started throwing up. She vomited multiple times, prompting the shop owner to remark that the woman should have vomited outside and not inside her shop, especially since she was not a child.
Abbo, who was said to be agitated by the sudden illness of one of the ladies, was said to have accused the shop owner of poisoning the store’s air conditioner.
The shop owner’s argument that if the air conditioner had been contaminated, others in the shop would have also taken ill, was said to have angered Abbo and the two began exchanging words over the matter.
