There was excitement in the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Maitama, Abuja, on Monday, as Justice Samira Bature awarded N50m damages against the senator representing Adamawa North, Elisha Abbo, as compensation to a woman, Osimibibra Warmate, who was assaulted by him at a sex-toy shop in Abuja in May 2019.
Justice Samira Bature gave the order in her judgment on the fundamental rights enforcement suit instituted by Warmate against the senator. Earlier, the CCTV footage of the assault on the woman by the senator had gone viral.
Warmate had told the court that she was assaulted by the senator at her friend’s shop in Utako, Abuja on May 11, 2019.
“Unbeknownst to me, a CCTV camera installed in Ms Erubami’s shop captured the violent assault on me by the respondent,” she had stated.
Recall that the police in 2019 charged the senator before a magistrates’ court in Zuba, Abuja, on one count charge of assaulting Warmate.
But the presiding magistrate, Abdullahi Ilelah, dismissed the case after upholding the no-case submission filed by the senator.
Warmate, however, through her legal team, including Esosa Omo-Usoh and Nelson Onuoha, sued Abbo in a fundamental rights enforcement suit at the FCT High Court and markedFCT/CV/2393/19.Justice Bature upheld the plaintiff’s case in Monday’s judgment.