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.
Senator 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.