As uncertainty lingers over the fate of former Deputy President of the Senate, Professor Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, who are due for sentencing in the United Kingdom over conspiracy to harvest human organs, contrary to the Modern Slavery Law of the United Kingdom, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has intervened to seek clemency for the Enugu West senator.
President Obasanjo’s intervention followed the guilty verdict passed by a London court last month on the Ekweremadus in the charge of conspiracy to harvest organs from a 21-year-old Nigerian, David Nwamini, who is seeking asylum after reporting the couple to the police in 2022, claiming he was a minor and was deceived into travelling to the UK to have his kidney removed.
Although it has been reported that the UK authorities found that Nwamini was 21 and not 16 years old, as claimed, and that Ekweremadu informed the UK Embassy in Nigeria, indicating the purpose of Nwamini’s trip to process his visa, the court found the senator and his wife guilty. Sentencing has been slated for this month.
In an April 3, 2023, letter to the chief clerk, Obasanjo asked the Central Criminal Court, London, to temper justice with mercy, noting that, even though the Ekweremadus’ crime was condemnable and unacceptable, the former senator has added to the socio-political development of Nigeria, and his punishment should consider his past records of good deeds and the plight of his ailing daughter.
Obasanjo’s letter read: “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 civilized society.
“However, it is my fervent desire that, for the 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 the society in particular and the nation in general.”
Obasanjo, former President for eight years under the Peoples Democratic Party, the same party as Senator Ekweremadu, is the first high-profile Nigerian to show support by way of seeking leniency for the Nigerian lawmaker and his wife since their conviction.