Organ harvesting: Obasanjo begs  UK court for Ekweremadu over risk of 10 years imprisonment

Taking his side for sympathy after a period of legal trial in London, the United Kingdom, over allegations of organ harvesting, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has written to the United Kingdom court that found former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Beatrice, guilty of organ trafficking.

In the letter addressed to the Chief Clerk, the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, in London, the former President requested Clerk to intervene and ensure the UK government temper justice with mercy on the matter.

The trial of the former Deputy Senate President had become of concern since last year when it was speculated there were clear evidence that could lead to his conviction.   It is feared Ekweremadu may be at risk of being sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in line with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 of the United Kingdom after a London court found him and his wife guilty of organ trafficking.

Obasanjo’s in his letter pleaded for mercy and profiled Ekweremadu with the sense of responsiblity. He said though he recognised the act of the conduct was illegitimate, yet the UK government should be magnanimous in mercy, arguing that both Ekweremadu and his wife have  been committed to enhancing poor people’s access to quality education and healthcare and building their capacity to participate in mainstream social, political and economic activities of their communities.

The letter reads, “My dear Chief Clerk, may I seize this opportunity to commend your utmost dedication and resourcefulness which you have demonstrated with rare qualities of commitment and courage, while also upholding the cherished traditions of the Public Service.

“I am Olusegun Obasanjo, a soldier commissioned into the British Army of the West African Frontier Force in 1958, and rose to the rank of a full General in the Nigerian Army. I received the surrender of the Biafran Army at the end of the Nigerian civil war. I was military Head of State from 1976 to 1979 and elected President from 1999 to 2007.

“It is with great pleasure that I write in respect of Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who I have known for over two decades. Within this period, I have followed and watched, with keen interest, Ike Ekweremadu’s inspiring career which traversed private legal practice and public administration. I recall, with fond memories, the beginning of our political and social relationship at the outset of our collective quest for democratic rebirth for our fatherland. During my administration as a democratically-elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria between 1999 and 2007, Ike Ekweremadu and I had close relationship and interactions as staunch members of our political party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and more so as he got elected into the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2003, of which he has since remained a member till date.

“Within this period of his service in the Nigerian Parliament, he has served as Deputy Senate President of the Senate and has headed so many Committees in various capacities and brought to bear his broad-based experience in legal practice and public administration. Sometime in 2009, he was appointed as the First Deputy Speaker of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and made to lead Ad hoc Committee to work for the return of constitutional order in the Niger Republic.

“I clearly remember that in the heady days of the keen contest for the presidential ticket of our Party in early 1999, he joined other well-meaning Nigerians from the South-Eastern part of Nigeria to set aside extraneous considerations and ensured that South East unanimously adopted me for the Presidency. This was without regard to the fact that my closest competitor hailed from their part of the country.

“I truly cherish his God-fearing, dispassionate, moderate and pan-Nigerian approach to national issues and developments, in our multi-ethnic, multi-religious geo-polity. He dedicates himself to the service of God and humanity and he continues to play visible roles in national development.

“Through the Ikeoha Foundation, a non-governmental organisation founded by him and his wife, in 1997, he and his wife have rendered a lot of charitable activities, enhancing poor people’s access to quality education and healthcare and building their capacity to participate in mainstream social, political and economic activities of their communities.

“Ike Ekweremadu’s conferment with the coveted national honour of Commander of the Federal Republic, CFR, is further testimony to his selfless service to our country, Nigeria.

“Mr. Chief Clerk, I am very much aware of the current travails and conviction of Ike Ekweremadu and his wife in the United Kingdom resulting from their being charged with conspiring to arrange the travel of a 21-year-old from Nigeria to the UK in order to harvest organs for their daughter.

“I do realise the implications of their action and I dare say, it is unpleasant and condemnable and can’t be tolerated in any sane or civilised society.

“However, it is my fervent desire for very warm relations between the United Kingdom and Federal Republic of Nigeria; for his position as one of the distinguished Senators in the Nigerian Parliament, and also for the sake of their daughter in question whose current health condition is in danger and requires urgent medical attention, you will use your good offices to intervene and appeal to the court and the government of the United Kingdom to be magnanimous enough to temper justice with mercy and let punishment that may have to come take their good character and parental instinct and care into consideration.

“I do hope Mr. and Mrs. Ekweremadu have learnt from this distressing experience of theirs to guide their future actions or inactions so they will continue to be outstanding members of their community and will continue to contribute fully to the good of society in particular and the nation in general.

“Please accept the assurances of my highest consideration.”

Ekweremadu’s fate was held in fear after he, his wife, and a doctor were convicted of organ trafficking by a UK court.

The accused were found guilty after a six-week trial at the Old Bailey over the case of facilitating the travel of a young Nigerian to the UK with a view to exploit him by harvesting his organ.

The jury had found that they criminally conspired to bring the 21-year-old Lagos street trader to London to exploit him for his kidney.

Recall  that  the former deputy senate president was arrested and charged by MET Police last June for conspiracy to traffic a man whose name was later revealed as David Nwamini (Ukpo).

Nwamini reportedly was not a minor, based on the details provided by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and Westminster Magistrate Court last June and July respectively.

Nwamini, according to the UK Guardian, was offered an illegal reward to become a donor for Ekweremadu’s daughter who has a kidney disease that forced her to drop out of a master’s degree in film at Newcastle University.

“In February 2022 the man was falsely presented to a private renal unit at Royal Free hospital in London as Sonia’s cousin in a failed attempt to persuade medics to carry out an £80,000 transplant. For a fee, a medical secretary at the hospital acted as an Igbo translator between the man and the doctors to help try to convince them he was an altruistic donor, the court heard,” UK Guardian had reported.

The prosecutor, Hugh Davies told the court that the Ekweremadus and Obeta had treated the man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward.”

He said they entered an “emotionally cold commercial transaction” with the man.

The behaviour of Mr Ekweremadu, a successful lawyer and founder of an anti-poverty charity who helped draw up Nigeria’s laws against organ trafficking, showed “entitlement, dishonesty and hypocrisy,” Mr Davies told the jury.

He said Ekweremadu, who owns several properties and had a staff of 80, “agreed to reward someone for a kidney for his daughter – somebody in circumstances of poverty and from whom he distanced himself and made no inquiries, and with whom, for his own political protection, he wanted no direct contact.”

“What he agreed to do was not simply expedient in the clinical interests of his daughter, Sonia, it was exploitation, it was criminal. It is no defence to say he acted out of love for his daughter. Her clinical needs cannot come at the expense of the exploitation of somebody in poverty,” UK Guardian had quoted Mr Davies as saying.

Meanwhile, Ekweremadu denied the charge, claiming he was the victim of a scam. In the same vein, the doctor, Mr Obeta, who also denied the charge, claimed the man was not offered a reward for his kidney and was acting altruistically.

Ekweremadu’s wife, Beatrice, denied any knowledge of the alleged conspiracy while his daughter, Sonia, did not give evidence.

WhatsApp messages shown to the court revealed Mr Obeta charged Mr Ekweremadu N4.5 million (about £8,000) made up of an “agent fee” and a “donor fee.”

Ekweremadu and Obeta later admitted to falsely claiming Nwamini was Sonia’s cousin in his visa application and in documents presented to the hospital.

The prosecution lawyer, Mr Davies said Ekweremadu ignored medical advice to find a donor for his daughter among genuine family members.

“At no point in time was there ever any intention for a family member close, medium or distant to do what could be paid for from a pool of donors,” he argued.

The judge, Jeremy Johnson, is expected to  pass a sentence.