By Adesina Soyooye
A Judge in the United Kingdom, Justice Jeremy Johnson, on Friday, 5th May, taunted Nigeria’s former Deputy Senate President, Dr Ike Ekweremadu.
While sentencing both Ekweremadu and his wife, Dr Beatrice Ekweremadu to 10 and six-year jail terms respectively, for human organ trafficking, Justice Johnson, looked straight at Ekweremadu, and told the Senator that he had fallen from grace. Said the Judge to Ekweremadu, “Your conviction represents a very substantial fall from grace.”
The Ekweremadus were arrested at the Heathrow Airport, London, on arrival from Turkey on an allegation of trafficking a Lagos street trader to London in order to harvest his organ for the benefit of their daughter, Sonia, 25, who is suffering from an advanced kidney disease. The idea was to transplant the 21 year old’s kidney to save Sonia’s life.
The plan went awry when the Doctor at the Free Royal Hospital, when he was taken there, found out that he was not aware of why he was brought to London. He claimed to have been told that he was being taken to London to work and better his life, and was promised the sum of seven thousand pounds sterling. He also said the Ekweremadus asked him to pretend he was Sonia’s cousin.
When the Doctor rejected him for being too young, and for not being aware of why he was there, and the long time implications of the procedure, the victim said that Dr Obinna Obete, a London-based Nigerian-born doctor, who was the go-between for the Ekweremadu’s, and in whose house he was kept, began to treat him very badly.
He was forced to run away, and slept on the streets for three days and nights. He, thereafter, went to a Police Station, told his story, and asked that his life be saved.
Ekweremadu and his wife, pleaded not guilty, and said they were scammed. The Judge did not believe them.
The Judge, on Friday, said the three of them – Ekweremadu, his wife and Obeta – were as guilty as hell in the “despicable trade”, and pinpointed Ekweremadu as central to it.
Said the Judge: “The harvesting of human organs is a form of slavery. It treats human beings and their bodies as commodities to be bought.
“You, (Ekweremadu), played a leading role in the offending act. You did so in order to secure the material advantage, namely a human kidney for your daughter. I am sure that you were the driving force throughout.
“Your conviction represents a very substantial fall from grace”
Ekweremadu and his wife will spend about 50 % of their jail terms in prison, while Dr Obeta, sentenced to 10 years in prison, will spend about 75 % of his jail term prison. His licence as a Doctor was, also, withdrawn.
In the weeks running to their sentencing, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Nigerian Senate, the House of Representatives, and the ECOWAS Parliament weighed-in, and appealed to the UK Government and the Court to temper justice with mercy. The appeals were in vain.
