VIDEO: Senator seen assaulting woman at adult toy shop speaks

A Nigerian senator caught on camera assaulting an assistant at a sex toy shop has defended his actions.

Elisha Abbo, whose video was shared on Tuesday said that he was retaliating after being attacked.

In the viral video released by Premium Times newspaper, the senator, accompanied by his security detail, is seen repeatedly hitting a woman in front of a uniformed police officer.

According to the publication, an agitated Mr Abbo is said to have called the police, claiming that the shop owner had insulted him.

A short while after a uniformed police officer walked in, the shop owner started making a call.

The senator asked the woman to stop calling since he was talking to her but she did not heed and continued making the call.

A man standing behind the police officer is then seen trying to snatch the shop owner’s phone.

An assistant standing nearby then tries intervening saying to the man “Oga, please take it easy now.”

Mr Abbo is then seen repeatedly slapping her, with one blow landing directly on her eye.

Evidently agitated, the senator is eventually pulled away by his handlers.

They assaulted my sister

Reached for comment by BBC, Mr Abbo did not deny he is the one hitting the woman in the video, but said that the footage was ‘doctored.’

“It happened long before I came into office and it’s just being released now to actually achieve a political aim.”

“Secondly, I want to also say categorically that they cut off a clip where they (hit) my sister in the shop before I was called upon…to go upstairs where I saw my sister lying unconscious in the shop,” he said.

The senator further claimed that the incident happened on 11 March 2019, but witnesses who spoke to Premium Times said it happened on 11 May.

Police spokesman Frank Mbah told the BBC that the woman should report the matter to a police station since it’s an assault case.