The father of Emily Eric, the acclaimed wife of Sen Elisha Abbo, a senator caught on camera assaulting a woman in a intimacy gadget shop, Pastor Alfred Dari, has disclosed that the senator allegedly abducted his daughter from home since January 2016 and has not paid her dowry.
Emily Eric, the acclaimed wife to Sen Abbo, became popular on social media since a video clip of her embattled husband who was beating a nursing mother in a gadget toy shop in Abuja emerged online.
Surprisingly, despite the strong video evidence, Emily claimed that Abbo is innocent of what he was being accused of.
Speaking exclusively to newsmen on Friday in Abuja, Pastor Dari said that he has never seen Sen Abbo one-on-one till date.
The clergyman said: ‘‘My wife has called him on several occasions to explain why he took away our daughter but he always answered us harshly before ending the call.
‘’Several times he either shunned us or threatened to deal with my wife or any other family member who attempts to trail him to Abuja to bring our daughter back home.’’
He said that Sen Abbo has never met with them, as the parents of his acclaimed wife, to declare his intention or pay her bride price as tradition demands. ‘’If the senator has paid a dime for her dowry, he should show evidence to the world,’’ he said. Speaking further, Dari said he believed that his daughter had been hypnotised by the senator.
He said he was surprised to hear the news that Emily gave birth to a baby with Sen Abbo in the year 2018. According to him, ‘’I never knew Sen Abbo one-on-one and not even now, but in November 2015, he called me, introducing himself as Cliff Ishaku, soliciting that I should pray for him when I arrived Israel for the 2015 pilgrimage, which I did when I was there.
A butcher transports meat to be sold on motorcycle at Ayaba Village in Billiri local government area of Gombe State ‘’As a pastor, I do receive calls like that for prayers hence; I was not bothered about how he got my phone number.
However, he told me that he got my phone number from my daughter and on January 18th, 2016, two days after I got to Abuja, Abbo called me again that he wanted to send his boys to pick me up and bring me to his house, which according to him, is comfortable but I turned the offer down because I had never met him before. ‘’In April 2016, when my daughter Emily, traveled to visit her sister in Abuja, she returned and told me that somebody promised both her and her sister a job in a dairy farm in Abuja. I reluctantly allowed her to go after a lot of considerations. ‘
’When she came back home six months later, I refused to let her return to Abuja but she insisted and left. She spent few days at home then. But last year, 2018, we only got to hear that Emily, our daughter, had given birth to a baby for Abbo.
‘’We were all surprised because he never came to us nor did he recognise us as her parents. He never paid her dowry but, he has consistently paraded her about as his wife.’’ The clergyman said all efforts to make the senator do the right thing by paying her bride price had proved abortive. He said each time they called him on the phone, he would shout at them and end the call.
He said on May 10, 2019 shortly after his usual prayers and fasting, he got a call that Sen Abbo had used a pressing iron to injure his daughter, after beating her to stupor.
“He disarmed her by collecting her phone from her so that she would not be able to make or receive calls. He locked all entrances to the house for weeks. ‘’When my older daughter went to check up on her, she was not given access into the house.
The following day, May 11, I was told that the beating was so severe that she bled much and could hardly survive it. ‘’I then asked my older daughter to get me his phone number. When I called him and introduced myself as Emily’s father, he drove from where he was temporarily living to the house and connected me to her and when I heard her voice, I became very depressed. ‘’I asked her to return home, but she told me the phone was on hands free and he was listening to our conversation.
He refused to allow her to come back home till date, when my wife told him she was coming to pick her daughter the following day, he threatened to deal with my wife if she came to Abuja. Ever since then, I have not heard from him till date.
‘’He blacklisted my cell phone number. I even threatened to report him to pressmen in a text message I sent to him but, he did not reply till date. ‘’I was also careful not to rush into taking any step without proper counsel from God. After a prayer session, I got the picture of my daughter’s battered face after the beating.
‘’I now see all other issues coming up on Senator Abbo as God’s way to create a plan for me to present the plight of my family to the necessary authorities,’’ he said He, however, appealed to the chairman, Senate Committee and the members investigating his case and all human right activists in the country to compel Senator Abbo to return his daughter whom he abducted from home. He urged them to stand by the family at this trying time. ‘’I need justice, justice should be served, I believe in the Nigerian system. I am calling on the Nigerian Senate and Nigerian security agencies to ensure that justice is served,’’ he added.
Newsflash247 Friday had reported how Sen Abbo was caught on camera in a sex toyshop in Abuja assaulting a woman. The police arraigned the Adamawa senator before a court on Monday and he was subsequently granted bail of N5 million. Abbo also appeared before a Senate committee set up to investigate the incident but exchanged words with the lawmakers. Meanwhile, all efforts to get the embattled Senator to respond the allegation proved abortive. Here is the text message sent to his mobile phone:
“Distinguished Sir, My name is Sunday Isuwa. I want to speak with you because one Pastor Alfred Dani claimed your wife, Emily, is his daughter and that you abducted her without paying bride price. I will want to hear from you, Distinguished.” The text was sent to his mobile number, 0806 Bleep 5112, on Thursday, July 11, 2019, at about 7:03pm
