By Charles Igbo
From Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, were prayers to God on behalf of Senator Ike Ekweremadu.
Ekweremadu, a son of the State, a serving Senator, and a former Deputy Senate President is embattled.
He was arrested at the Heathrow Airport, London, alongside his wife, Nwanneka, June 21, 2022, on allegations bordering on organ trafficking.
They allegedly sponsored a minor(?) from Nigeria to London, for the sole purpose of harvesting his kidney to save the life of their daughter, Sonia, who is suffering from a rare kidney disease. Sonia schooled and lives in London.
The ‘trafficked’ teenager, allegedly, reported them to the Metropolitan Police, claiming he was not told he was brought to London to have his kidney harvested. Unsuspecting, when the couple flew in from Turkey to London, it was into the waiting hands of the Metropolitan Police.
They were clamped into Police custody, and arraigned in court the next day. About two months later, Mrs Ekweremadu was granted bail from prison custody, but the Magistrate refused to grant bail to Senator Ekweremadu while prosecution continues.
In an emotional statement where she appealed that her life be saved by any kind donor, Sonia revealed that her father, the Senator, has also fallen victim to a serious kidney disease in Prison custody.
And, in a classic case of hitting a man who is already down, a Federal High Court
which sat in Abuja, Nigeria, granted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, its request to take over 40 properties scattered in Abuja, Enugu, Dubai, London and the United States of America which, allegedly, owned by Ekweremadu.
In a ruling on Thursday, Justice Inyang Ekwo, ordered a temporary forfeiture of the properties to the Federal Government.
But while receiving leaders and members of Oganiru Enugu, a political structure promoted by Ekweremadu, who came to announce the collapse of its structure into that of the Governorship candidate of the PDP, in the State, Peter Mba, the Governor who hosted them, asked for prayers to remember Ekweremadu, and commit him to the hands of God.
Ugwuanyi, who asked Sir Ralph Onovo, to pray for God’s intervention in Ekweremadu’s case, also requested that Mass be booked every week on behalf of Ekweremadu and his family. The Governor asked them to have faith because, “this too shall pass away.”
Also speaking, Mba the Governorship candidate, expressed concern for the travails of Ekweremadu. He said that the prayers and thoughts of the PDP family are with Senator Ekweremadu and his family. Mbah: “With faith, we pray that in no distant time, he is going to join us in the Party.”
Before he went to the Senate, Ekweremadu was the Chief of Staff to a former Governor of Enugu State, who is, also, now a Senator, Dr Chimaroke Nnamani.
Ekweremadu’s seat as the Senator representing Enugu West has been empty since his arrest. The leadership of the Senate has not declared it vacant.
