Former president of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has written to the Central Criminal Court, London, to intervene in the case of Nigeria’s former deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife who have been convicted for organ harvesting.
In a letter dated April 3, 2023, Obasanjo appealed to the court and the government of the United Kingdom to be lenient in the punishment to be meted out to Ike Ekweremadu and his wife in the case.
Ekweremadu and his wife are to be sentenced on May 5.
The former president said much as the action of the Ikweremadus was unpleasant and condemnable, he was intervening in view of the cordial relationship between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, the position of Ekweremadu as a distinguished Senator in the Nigerian parliament and for the sake of their daughter in poor health condition requiring urgent attention.
His words: “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 years 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 and 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.”
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Obasanjo said he believed that Ekeweremadu and his wife must have learnt some lessons from the experience.
“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,” he said.
Before his appeal, the former president wrote eloquently about the virtues of Ekweremadu as an individual and a politician who had contributed to the development of democracy in Nigeria.
Ekweremadu and his wife were convicted on March 23, 2023, having been found guilty of an organ-trafficking plot, after they took a 21-year-old man to the UK from Lagos.
Ike Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, and Dr Obinna Obeta, 50, were convicted of conspiring to exploit the man for his kidney, in the first such case under modern slavery laws.
The Old Bailey heard the organ was for the couple’s daughter, Sonia, aged 25.
The victim, a street trader from Lagos, was brought to the UK last year to provide a kidney in an £80,000 private transplant at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
The prosecution said he was offered up to £7,000 and promised opportunities in the UK for helping, and that he only realised what was going on when he met doctors at the hospital.
It was alleged the defendants had tried to convince medics at the Royal Free by pretending he was the cousin of Sonia, who has a debilitating illness, when they were not related.
While it is lawful to donate a kidney, it becomes criminal if there is a reward of money or other material advantage.
When he was rejected as unsuitable, the court heard the Ekweremadus transferred their interest to Turkey and set about finding another donor.
An investigation was launched after the young man ran away from London and slept rough for days before walking into a police station in Staines, in Surrey, crying and in distress.
The Ekweremadus, who have an address in Willesden Green, north-west London, and Dr Obeta, from Southwark, south London, denied the charge against them.
It is the first time that defendants have been convicted under the Modern Slavery Act of an organ-trafficking conspiracy.
Sentencing is set to take place on 5 May.
