Appeal Court Sacks Adamawa Senator Elisha Abbo

THE Abuja division of the Court of Appeal has sacked the lawmaker representing Adamawa North Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Ishaku Elisha Abbo.

The court voided the election of the controversial senator who as a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared the winner of the 25 February 2023 election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).  

The court accordingly ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to Senator Abbo and issue same to Rev. Amos Yohanna Kumai of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

Yohanna had in a petition filed at the tribunal sitting in Yola challenged the declaration of Abbo as the winner of the poll, arguing that Abbo did not score the majority of lawful votes cast. He also contended that the poll was marred by irregularities, such as false entries, alteration, and cancellation of votes at several polling units, among others.

Confirming the development via his Facebook page,  the senator said: “The Court Appeal in Abuja just voided my election. The gang-up has temporarily worked. I will soon address the press.” 

Also, speaking with journalists later at his residence in Abuja after learning about his sacking, Abbo blamed his fate on the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio. He alleged that Akpabio had a hand in the unfavourable court judgment against him. He alleged further that the Senate President had pencilled down four other senators for removal through the court.

“I have it from a reliable source, and a very highly placed one for that matter, that myself and four other senators within the fold of the ruling All Progressives Congress would be removed from the Senate through rulings from the courts,  all because of working against emergence of Akpabio as President of the 10th Senate.

“I won’t mention the names of all the four other ones targeted but the next in line is Senator Orji Uzor Kalu,” Abbo claimed. Faulting the court judgment, Abbo insisted that there was no way the PDP candidate could have defeated him at the poll. He said he was so popular that his margin of victory against the PDP candidate was 11,000 votes.

“The court judgment is strange and the judiciary needs to please remain the last hope of the common man.

“For President Bola Tinubu, I must declare that this is not the democracy he fought for and should please lead in protecting it,” he added.

He, however, appealed to his supporters to remain calm, vowing that he would be back in the Senate in 2027.

Senator Abbo shot into the limelight when he brutalised a nursing mother at an Abuja sex toy shop. He was subsequently tried and found guilty of the offence. Only on 30th August 2023 Abuja Division of the Court of  Appeal affirmed the decision of an FCT High Court which awarded Fifty Million Naira (N50,000,000.00) in damages against him but in favour of the victim of the attack, Ms Osimibibra Warmate. 

It will be recalled that the FCT High Court had on 28 September 2020 an FCT High Court had ordered Abbo to pay N50 million as compensation to Warmate for assaulting her at a sex toy shop. In July 2020, a magistrate court in Zuba had found the former senator not guilty of criminal assault.

However, Ms Warmate proceeded to file a fundamental human rights enforcement suit marked CV/2393/19 before the FCT High Court. Delivering judgment in the application, the trial judge, Justice Samira Bature, found Abbo guilty and ordered him to pay the sum to the young woman.

Eighteen-Eleven Media