How Senator Abbo Battered And Infected His Igbo Wife With HIV Before Her Sad Death

 

For the embattled Senator Elisha Abbo, there is no end in sight to his self-inflicted travail. The infamous video of his assault of a Nursing at an Abuja adult toy shop is the Pandora’s box that brought him to bad light. Now, the floodgate is open and more damaging revelations are coming into the open, as grave allegations surface from different quarters.

 

Two of his accusers spoke with Saturday Sun. The worse allegation came from Eunice Tochukwu Ojukwu, his sister-in-law, who alleged that Senator Abbo, battered his late wife, Eucharia Uche Ishiaku, who eventually died ofHIV.

 

Eunice Tochukwu Ojukwu made this allegation when she visited the Ikeja office of the Sun newspaper yesterday.

“I am the immediate junior sister of Eucharia Uche Ishiaku who was married to the man you all now know as Senator Elisha Abbo,” she declared. “His real name is Clifford Ishiaku, that’s the name we knew him till we saw the story on social media that he is now a senator.”

 

She lamented that her sister would have been alive if her husband had informed her about his health status.

 

The second story, from Owolabi Olumuyiwa Tayo, a former business associate of the Adamawa Senator, chronicled in detail their business dealing way back when the man at the centre of the storm was a mere political jobber. Owolabi’s gritty story of abuse of power, disrespect for contract and lack of regard for friendship adds to the grisly portrait of the man who is reportedly Nigeria’s “youngest lawmaker.”

 

The grim story of his stormy marriage

 

Without much ado, Eunice Ojukwu spilled the details.

 

According to her, the couple met sometime before 2009 and before they got married, he converted from Islam to Christianity. On September 26, 2009, they had their church wedding at a Catholic church in Mubi, Adamawa.

 

Months after, she took ill and thereafter was treating a regular ailment, not knowing that she had been infected with HIV.

 

“I got to know about her illness in 2012,” she said.

 

She told me that she later discovered that her husband was already infected but held that information from her while they were dating. Unknown to her, he was going for treatment and was still sleeping with her without protection.

 

 

Ojukwu claimed the family got to know about the battering and made an effort to rescue their daughter from the toxic marriage. “We knew that he was raping our sister. He even tried to bring his friend so that both of them will sleep with my sister at the same time. She took a lot of stitches as a result of anal sex forced on her,” she said.

 

At a point, their father had contacted Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo in Mubi, begging them to bring back her daughter.

 

 

Of her sister, she said: “She was a calm person who did not want to lose her marriage, so she kept the information to herself. There were several fights and when my sister calls me, I will plead with her to leave that man but she will refuse. She believed so much in that marriage until she was very sick. There was an instance where he battered her so much in their house in Abuja and dragged her out of the house naked. Anytime that he was beating her up, neighbours tried to intervene and he’d threaten them with a gun.”

 

She continued: “When they were in Abuja, he would dump her in the hospital for days, and no one would be there to give her food till the hospital alerted us and we’d send someone to her. We were in and out of the hospital for six months before she died in 2013. When my sister died, he called that he was going to deal with me that I was the one that killed my sister.”

 

She gave an insight into how her sister met him.

 

 

Saturday Sun wanted to know why she is coming out with the story now.

 

Eunice Ojukwu replied: “I want justice for my sister. In 2013, when my sister died, I posted it on Facebook and no one took it seriously. He was a nobody and I was the daughter of a nobody. Then social media was not as strong as it is now. All I want is justice, let no one be deceived by those tears, he is an evil man.”

 

In a face-saving video circulate on social media, Abbo had apologized to Nigerians over his shameful action, cutting a figure of a remorseful man.

 

Ojukwu warned: “We are used to that his crocodile tears, whenever he comes begging. Nigerians should not be deceived.”

 

 

On Thursday, four days after the infamous “Assault in a Sex Toy Shop” video went viral, Owolabi Olumuyiwa Tayo was a guest of Saturday Sun. He also came to narrate his ordeal at the hand of Senator Elisha Abbo.

 

Owolabi, from Ekiti State, was an official photojournalist to former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose in 2014. He rendered an account of his chilling encounter with the Senator.

 

What was the bone of contention? The Senator refused to pay him for a service he rendered, Owolabi alleged.

 

 

After the job at Osun, he recalled, the Senator left for Abuja and he had to join him there.

 

 

The second time they travelled together was when the incident happened.

 

His recollection: “I travelled to Lagos to do some things for him. We were supposed to go to Abuja together that very day, but on my way, I couldn’t meet up; my car broke down on the road along Lokoja, so I got to Abuja late. I had to take a flight from Abuja to Yola. That day was the eve of Boko Haram invasion of Mubi, so we were supposed to be in Mubi that very day. When we heard about the news, we couldn’t go, so we lodged at Danzol Hotel in Yola. At this point, I couldn’t take the risk of Boko Haram, so I decided to leave. I approached the Senator to ask for part-payment of my money so that I could go and meet my family and leave that environment. At first, I sent him a text and he did not respond.  I called, but he wouldn’t pick. That day some of his people that escaped from Boko Haram came from Mubi to meet him at that hotel and he was giving them money and everything they needed to feel comfortable. I was frustrated because he refused to pick my calls. So around that 5 pm, I tried to reach him but I couldn’t. Out of frustration I went and sit at the doorstep of his room for more than three hours waiting for him to come out and attend to me.  On coming out of his hotel room, he said, “Muyiwa you are embarrassing me”, and I told him that I wasn’t embarrassing him, but rather pleading with him to give me my money so that I could go and meet my family.”

 

At last Owolabi came to the crux of his story: “The next thing he did was to start beating me. He called his orderly to bundle me out of the Hotel at that odd hour. The policemen beat the hell out of me that day. They cocked the gun at me and I said my last prayer. The Senator said that he would tell his people that I was a Boko Haram. I became afraid because I didn’t understand their language.  There was nobody I could call; I don’t have a family there. I went there based on my job. That was when I kept quiet.  I was just saying my last prayer and I was asking for mercy from God. One of the policemen told him that they should take me to Kaliwa District Police station in Yola. We were there for more than an hour because I did not allow them to take me away from where people were at that odd hour because I did not know where they were taking me. So it was around 2 am that they took me there in their pickup van to the police station. When we got there, there was nobody, no light until one policeman brought a torch and they told him to put me in a cell. They were speaking but I did not understand what they were saying because they were speaking Hausa.”

 

 

He said no, and went on to detail how he was manhandled by the policemen.

 

Succour came his way in the morning when the DPO arrived and after listening to his story, directed that he should be set free.

 

“Some of the staff that I worked together with came that very morning and they pitied me when they saw my condition. I was helpless, they tore my clothes, broke my ankle, they beat me mercilessly with their guns, the slapped me,” he said.

 

By Owolabi’s estimate, Senator Abbo owed him N2.8m.

 

 

Out of the N2.8m, Abbo paid only N240, 000, Owolabi claimed.

 

As to why he decided to bring out the issue now after about five years, Owolabi explained: “When I saw the video of the lady he beat, I was so furious that he shouldn’t have gone to that extent. Again, some people were trying to defend him, so I have to tell them that I too have experienced such a thing from him and this is my story.”

 

Asked if he is driven by an ulterior motive, Owolabi said: “I am not blackmailing him. He can’t deny me. His brothers can’t deny me. I have their contacts. They have called me time without number today, people that we worked together. His Personal Assistant, Musa, that we worked together has called me and said I should ‘die’ down the issue if he tries to pay me.”

 

Regrettably, the Senator had refused to respond to his efforts to get his attention. “His people have been calling since I opened up.  I don’t know if he is the one sending them. I have the conversations of one of his staff in Abuja that is pleading that I shouldn’t have gone too far. He is asking how much I have to collect, and that they can personally rally the money and pay me without even involving the Senator”.

 

 

He went on: “It’s not that he does not have money; I can assure you he has money to pay. After the incident, he called me to meet him in Lokoja. Then he wanted to work for late Audu Abubakar. We were in a hotel for two weeks, but I think Audu Abubakar did not give him much audience. I thought he wanted to use the avenue to pay me my money because I wanted to sort it out amicably.  My brother wanted to contact media houses to make it public, but I discovered that if I had made a move then it would be dangerous for me.  Again, I was working with Governor Fayose back then and it was on the eve of his inauguration, so I discovered that it might affect so many things.”

 

What does he want from the Senator––apology or his money?

“I want both,” Owolabi said.

 

Culled from Daily Sun