The 9th Senate played to the gallery on the Sen. Abbo case.
By Adesuwa Tsan
In Nigeria, it’s a different week, a different trouble. For this last week of October, the trouble involved a video of a power-drunk House of Representatives member representing Aba North and Aba South, Hon. Alex Mascot Ikwechegh, harassing an “ordinary” citizen, Stephen Abutwatseya, at his residence in Maitama, Abuja.
In the video, the lawmaker repeatedly insisted that Abutwatseya, a Bolt driver who delivered an order of snails to his house, disrespected him and his social status. The footage captured Ikwechegh slapping the driver multiple times, insisting that the request to come and collect his order outside was disrespectful to him.
“Do you know who I am? I can make this man (driver) disappear from the whole of Nigeria, and nothing will happen. Can you imagine this rat? I am not going to give this boy one naira of my money.
“I am not going to call my policemen to beat you up. I will do that myself. I will show you that I am a big brother. I will tie you up, lie you down and put you in my generator house. Do you know where you are? Because you saw me sitting outside here. Look at this monkey,” he said.
Following widespread outrage across the country, Ikwechegh apologized for his “unacceptable” behavior in a statement released on Monday night. On Tuesday, when House Leader Hon. Julius Ihonvbere raised a motion of privilege to bring the assault incident to the attention of the House during plenary, Ikwechegh again apologized, stating he and the person he assaulted were exploring alternative dispute resolution options (but the next day, he pled not guilty to assault when arraigned by the police before a Kuje Magistrate Court).
After debating the motion, the representatives passed a resolution for their Ethics and Privileges Committee to investigate Ikwechegh’s conduct. The committee was given two weeks to submit its report.
The House’s response is appropriate, especially as Hon. Ihonvbere stressed that the actions of “a single honorable member” had led to the image of the House being “wrongly maligned by reports.” He stated it was unfair to suggest that Ikwechegh’s conduct is typical of lawmakers in general and the House of Representatives in particular.
Similarly, Hon. Babajimi Benson lamented that the incident has worsened the poor perception Nigerians have of members of parliament. According to him, the parliament is the most hated institution nationally, and therefore, members of the legislature ought to be very cautious in the public eye. However, whether lawmakers will show the same enthusiasm in the investigation, submission of the report, consideration of the report, and implementation of recommendations remains to be seen.
A reference case is that of Sen. Elisha Abbo, an Adamawa lawmaker (at the time a senator-elect) who assaulted a nursing mother, Osimibibra Warmate, in a sex toy shop in Abuja on May 11, 2019, by slapping her. Her offense? He claimed she called him a drunk. The assault was caught on camera and soon went viral, gaining traction and attracting the Senate’s attention.
When Nigerians demanded justice for Warmate, Abbo, like Ikwechegh, apologised publicly for his actions and turned himself over to the police, who kept him overnight before granting him bail after he met a set of administrative conditions for his bond.
He was later arraigned before the Chief Magistrate Court in Zuba, Abuja, on two criminal charges. He pled not guilty. However, the magistrate court dismissed the assault case filed by the Nigerian police against Mr. Abbo for lack of diligent prosecution – this was despite the video evidence showing him assaulting Ms. Warmate and a televised press conference in which the lawmaker apologized to the victim.
The plaintiff later filed a civil suit in July 2019, represented by Solola and Akpana Partners. Delivering the judgment on Monday, Justice Samira Bature found the senator guilty and ordered him to pay N50 million to the plaintiff as compensation.
Meanwhile, the Senate set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the incident. Three months later, the committee submitted its report to the upper chamber but never considered it. Former Senate spokesperson Sen. Godiya Akwashiki said the report was abandoned because the case was in court. So, in the end, the 9th Senate played to the gallery on the Sen. Abbo case. The question now is, will Ikwechegh’s investigation report end up gathering dust on the shelf like Abbo’s?