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More Troubles for Senator Abbo as Journalist Accuses Him of Assault
The troubles of embattled Senator Elisha Abbo seems not to have ended as he has been drawn into a fresh scandal. A photojournalist, Olumuyiwa Owolabi, has accused him of assault and breach of agreement.
Owolabi told The PUNCH that Abbo not only assaulted him but got the police to lock him up in Adamawa.
He said, “The viral video of Senator Elisha Abbo assaulting a young lady isn’t a news to me as I was one of his victims of assault years back.
“I met him during the campaign of former governor Ayodele Fayose while I was the official photojournalist assigned to Fayose during the campaign and later head of photojournalists to his deputy after the election.”
The photojournalist said Abbo, who was contesting to become a senator on the platform of the All Progressives Congress at the time, entered into a contract with him to cover his political activities at the cost of N2.8m.
He said on August 13, 2014, he travelled with Abbo to Yola, Adamawa State, from Abuja by air and they lodged at Lelewa Hotel for weeks while campaigning for the primaries which was eventually won by Senator Binta Garba.
The photojournalist said he travelled along with the senator from Adamawa to Mubi, Vintim Muchala to Mubi and later back to Yola after he lost the senatorial primary.
Owolabi said, “On approaching Senator Abbo to enforce the contract agreement we had, he refused to pay. He ignored several pleas for him to just give me part of my money.
“On the fateful day we wanted to travel together to Mubi for the last campaign, Boko Haram invaded the place prior to the day we ought to have travelled. Due to the attack by Boko Haram, I began to plead with him that I needed to leave the state.
“After several text messages and calls put through to him were ignored, I had no choice but to sit in front of his room where he was lodged at Dansoho Hotel, Yola. This was around 5pm.”
The photojournalist alleged that when Abbo saw him, he got so angry that he began to beat him, slapping him repeatedly.
After several text messages and calls put through to him were ignored, I had no choice but to sit in front of his room where he was lodged at Dansoho Hotel, Yola. This was around 5pm.”
The photojournalist alleged that when Abbo saw him, he got so angry that he began to beat him, slapping him repeatedly.
Owolabi said Abbo quickly called a policeman and told the cop that he was a Boko Haram suspect and should be arrested immediately.
The photojournalist added, “As soon as he came out, I began to plead with him that I had to go. The next thing he said was that I was embarrassing him. He started beating and slapping me. He told his orderly to put me inside the pick-up truck. He told them to point their guns at me and that he would kill me and tell people I was a member of the Boko Haram sect.
“When I heard that statement, I was shocked because I didn’t know anybody there and I couldn’t speak their language fluently. No one could come to my rescue when he brutalised me, causing me to sprain my ankle.
“I began begging him to just leave me and let me go that I would leave the money for him because of his action.”
He alleged that Abbo’s police escort took him to Kaliwa Police Division around 2am with instructions that he should be shot dead if he failed to comport himself.
Owolabi said Abbo had broken his phone at the time and so he was locked up in the police station without any means of contacting anyone.
The photojournalist added, “He had damaged my phone, I couldn’t contact anybody; he tore my clothes and I was virtually naked.
“That very night, on getting to Kaliwa Police Station, I begged the investigating police officer to please let me use his phone to talk to one of my relatives. That was how I called one of my brothers that pleaded with the IPO to assist me out of the situation.
“The DPO came the following morning and begged him (Abbo) to give me transport fare to go back to meet my family. Till date, he hasn’t paid me the money.”
The photojournalist, who pleaded with Nigerians to help him, also shared photos of private chats he purportedly had with the senator.
Attempts to speak with the senator proved abortive as calls put through to his telephone indicated that it was switched off while a text message was not responded to as of 7am on Thursday.
The Punch
Nigeria on Wednesday made a high-level presentation to the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) in London, United Kingdom, as part of efforts to advance its bid to host the 2030 centenary edition of the Commonwealth Games.
The Nigerian delegation, led by Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Shehu Dikko, and Director General, Hon. Bukola Olopade, emphasised that the bid is an opportunity to foster a shared legacy that epitomises the Commonwealth spirit.
Nigeria presented an all-inclusive bid, with focus areas such as sports excellence, arts, international cultural exchange, tapping into a budding creative economy, building a new shared commonwealth legacy and shaping the future of the African youth.
The bid reflects the core values of Commonwealth Sport: More in Common, Equality, Humanity, and Destiny. The Abuja 2030 Games are designed to bring people together through the power of sport, reaching across gender, disability, culture, ethnicity, age, and background. They will celebrate what binds the Commonwealth together, fostering solidarity while opening pathways for more people to succeed in sport.
The bid also represents equality by offering Africa, for the first time in 100 years, the chance to host the Games. It reflects humanity by promising to transform lives and turn one million dreams into one million skills.
Also, it embodies destiny by positioning the Centennial Games in Nigeria as a defining moment that will shape the next century of the Commonwealth through youth, skills, and inclusive growth.
The delegation included the Bid Coordinator, Mallam Mainasara Ilo; the President of the Nigerian Olympic Committee, Engr. Habu Gumel, Minister of Arts and Culture, Hannatu Musawa, Presidential Spokesperson, Hon. Sunday Dare, former Olympian and 2-time Commonwealth gold medalist, Mary Onyali, and current world number one para-badminton player, Eniola Bolaji.
Nigeria’s Abuja 2030 bid is presented as an opportunity to shape the next century of the Commonwealth through humanity, equality, and shared destiny, ensuring that Africa’s youth are an important part of the future.
President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday conferred national honours of the Commander of the Order of the Niger posthumously on four late Ogoni leaders.
They are Albert Badey, Edward Kobani, Theophilus Orage, and Samuel Orage, popularly remembered as the Ogoni Four.
Tinubu announced the conferment when he received the report of the Ogoni Consultations Committee at the State House, Abuja, on Wednesday.
He urged the people of Ogoniland to embrace reconciliation and unity after decades of division.
“May their memories continue to inspire unity, courage and purpose among us.
“I urge the Ogoni people across classes, communities and generations to close ranks, put this dark chapter behind us and move forward as a united community with one voice,” Tinubu said.
Wednesday’s meeting comes 16 months after the President, in May 2024, promised to “pursue diligently and honourably” the Ogoni cleanup and increase the number of its indigenes benefitting from its empowerment programmes.
Tinubu also pledged his commitment to unlocking the human and natural resource potential of Ogoniland while ensuring the environmental and economic security of Nigerian communities.
At the meeting, the President assured stakeholders that his administration would support the journey of Ogoniland towards peace, environmental remediation, and economic revival, while also facilitating the return of oil exploration to the area.
He stated, “I am encouraged by the overwhelming consensus of the Ogoni communities to welcome the resumption of oil production.
“The government will deploy every resource to support your people in this march towards shared prosperity.”
Tinubu cited developments in 2022 when the Buhari administration transferred the operations of the Ogoni oil field to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and its joint venture partners.
He argued that his government would honour and build on Buhari’s decision.
In his closing remarks, Tinubu called on the people to seize the moment, saying, “Let us together turn pain into purpose, conflict into cooperation, and transform the wealth beneath Ogoni soil into a blessing for the people and for Nigeria.”
Consequently, he directed the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to commence engagement between the Ogoni people, NNPCL, its partners, and all relevant stakeholders to finalise modalities for restarting operations.
“A dead asset is not valuable to the community, the country or the people.
“The longer we procrastinate, the worse it is for everyone,” the President said.
He also directed the Minister of Environment to integrate pollution remediation and environmental recovery into the broader framework of dialogue with the people.
The National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, who presented the report, said the consultations included all four Ogoni zones, with input from local communities, traditional leaders, and the diaspora.
Ribadu said, “In all aspects of our national life, Ogoni is one, thirty-something years of very unfortunate history rewrite the wrong now,
“To us was instruction, then we carry out this dialogue, community engagement, talking with the people and getting to understand how to move forward. It has succeeded like what you have seen today.
“He gave directives to all government agencies and institutions and also directly to our office that we must implement everything that have been agreed and we have taken it.”
Ribadu affirmed that his office, alongside all relevant agencies, is committed to restoring peace in Ogoniland.
“We will make sure that we follow his own directives and his instructions.
“We are going to make sure that peace is restored already, it is, and hopefully you will see the benefit of it not just in Ogoni land but the entire Niger Delta and by extension Nigeria,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Dialogue Committee, Prof. Don Baridam, noted that the committee ensured all stakeholders were carried along in the process, noting that the report reflects the collective will of the Ogoni people.
Baridam said the report captured the people’s demands for structured participation in oil production, renewed environmental cleanup, and a framework for sustainable development.
Oil was first commercially discovered in Oloibiri, Ogoniland, in 1958. However, exploration stopped in 1993 following sustained protests against environmental degradation and injustice.
The Ogoni Four refers to four traditional chiefs from the Ogoni community in Rivers State who were murdered on May 21, 1994, in the village of Giokoo.
The killings took place against the backdrop of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People campaign, led by writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, which had been mobilising the Ogoni against oil companies, particularly Shell, and the Nigerian state.
The subsequent struggles of Ogoni leaders to protect their environment from harmful oil exploration were met with severe repression, culminating in the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and nine other leaders by the Abacha regime in 1995.
The Punch
Headlines
Tinubu Holds Closed-door Meeting with Rivers Ex-administrator Ibas, EFCC Chair, Fin Minister
President Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday evening, summoned the immediate past Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd.), to the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Ibas, who arrived at the State House at about 5:50 pm dressed in brown native attire, was accompanied to the meeting by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, and Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede.
Earlier, Edun had been sighted entering the villa briefly before leaving, only to return later carrying a file, underscoring the gravity of the engagement with the President.
Vice Admiral Ibas ceased to function as administrator of the oil-rich State on September 17, following the termination of the six-month emergency rule imposed in March.
President Tinubu had directed the reinstatement of the suspended governor, Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly from the previous Thursday.
During its first sitting after the end of emergency rule, the Rivers State House of Assembly, presided over by Speaker Martin Amaewhule, resolved to investigate the management of State funds under Ibas’ tenure.
Lawmakers specifically resolved “to explore the process of knowing what transpired during the emergency rule about spending from the consolidated revenue fund for the award of contracts and other expenditures.”
Ibas, however, has publicly rejected the decision to probe the State’s expenditure during his six months in office.
Official records show that Rivers State received at least N254.37 billion from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) between March and August 2025, covering the period Ibas served as sole administrator.
Details of the closed-door meeting were yet to be made public as of press time.
