Ohanaeze Ndigbo lashes out at Malami for refusing to intervene in Ekweremadu's trial

OHANAEZE Ndigbo has lashed out at attorney-general Abubakar Malami for saying that the Nigerian government will not intervene in the ongoing trial of former deputy senate president Senator Ike Ekweremadu in the UK stressing that he should be supported.

In June, Senator Ekweremadu and his wife Beatrice were arrested by London's Metropolitan Police on suspicion of child trafficking and planned organ harvesting. They were charged before Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court with conspiracy to arrange/facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting.

Both of them were denied bail at the time and were remanded in custody until the case were heard again on July 26 at the Westminster Magistrates Court, when Beatrice was released but her husband was denied bail. In the first such case of its kind involving Nigerians, the Ekweremadus were accused of conspiring to traffic a homeless man into the UK to harvest his kidney for their daughter

They have been charged by the Metropolitan Police with conspiracy to engage in the organ harvesting of one David Ukpo Nwamini. Beatrice was charged with arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation, between August 1 last year and May 5, under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Her husband, Ike Ekweremadu, was charged with conspiracy to arrange or facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting. When the case was last heard on August 4 at the Old Bailey where it has been moved to, Obinna Obeta, a practising Nigerian medical doctor in London, appeared alongside the couple.

 At that hearing,  the judge ruled that the pre-trial will begin the week of October 31, while the main case itself will start in May 2023. Commenting on the trial, Mr Malami said that the Nigerian government would not interfere with any local or international legal battle involving Senator Ekweremadu, pointing out that it had never been the tradition of the government to interfere in a judiciary process, whether in Nigeria or elsewhere.

However, Ohanaeze Ndigbo spokesperson, Chiedozie Ogbonnia, countered the attorney-general, saying sovereigns usually interfere to save their citizens in foreign countries. He then asked the Nigerian government to intervene and assist the lawmaker and his wife.

Mr Ogbonnia said: “We urge the Federal Government of Nigeria led by President Muhammadu Buhari and  Geoffrey Onyeama, the minister of foreign affairs, the Nigeria high commission in the UK, the Senate and House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to burnish their diplomatic channels in ensuring that Ekweremadu and his wife get the desired assistance by transferring the case to Nigeria.”

He  recalled that Nigeria in late 2018 and 2019, using her diplomatic weight, secured the release of Zainab Kila, a Nigerian lady from a Saudi Arabian prison over alleged drug trafficking. “We believe that Mr Ekweremadu’s case should not be different, especially when Nigeria enjoys longstanding cordial relations with the UK, and all the individuals involved in the UK case are Nigerian nationals,” Mr Ogbonnia added.

Furthermore, Ohanaeze said the lawmaker had served Nigeria meritoriously in various capacities and was decorated with the service honour of the Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, adding that a measured indignity to Senator Ekweremadu, an illustrious Igbo and a serving senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a sad denouement to Nigeria and indeed the entire Africa. Mr Ogbonnia faulted the continued incarceration of Senator Ekweremadu  despite him making full disclosure to the UK authorities.