By Halimah Olamide
Former Nigerian Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and his wife today face the decision of the court over allegations of organ harvesting leveled against them.
The 60 year old Nigerian politician was found guilty in March this year at the London’s Old Bailey criminal court of conspiring to traffic a young street trader into Britain for his body part.
Also convicted, a apart from Ekweremadu’s wife Beatrice, who is 56, is Obinna Obeta, 50, a doctor who acted as a middleman in the plot.
Ekweremadu’s case is the first of its kind under the UK law over harvesting.
They all risk 10 years in prison.
The young man who was trafficked said he was not aware of the real reasons he was brought to the United Kingdom.
Esther Richardson, from the Metropolitan Police’s Modern Slavery and Exploitation Command, called it a “landmark conviction” and thanked the victim for his “bravery” in coming forward.
There have been pleas for leniency for the Nigerian politician.
Former President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo had written a letter to the Government of United Kingdom asking for leniency.
Obasanjo in the letter dated April 3, and addressed to The Chief Clerk, the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, London, titled “Re: Ike Ekweremadu,” said though Ekweremadu’s action was condemnable and unacceptable, he had contributed his quota to the socio-political development of Nigeria, adding that his punishment should consider his past records of good deeds and the plight of his ailing daughter.
The letter read: “It is with great pleasure that I write in respect of Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who I have known for over two decades.
“Within this period, I have followed and watched, with keen interest, Ike Ekweremadu’s inspiring career which traversed private legal practice and public administration. I recall, with fond memories, the beginnings of our political and social relationship at the outset of our collective quest for democratic rebirth for our fatherland.
“During my administration as a democratically-elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria between 1999 and 2007, Ike Ekweremadu and I had close relationship and interactions as staunch members of our political party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and more so as he got elected into the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2003, of which he has since remained a member till date..
“Within this period of his service in the Nigerian Parliament, he has served as Deputy Senate President of the Senate and has headed so many committees in various capacities and brought to bear his broad-based experience in legal practice and public administration.
“Sometime in 2009, he was appointed as the First Deputy of the Economic Community of West African States, and led ad hoc Committee to work for the return of ECOWAS B constitutional order in the Niger Republic.
“I clearly remember that in the heady days of the keen contest for the presidential ticket of our Party in early 1999, he joined other well-meaning Nigerians from the South-Eastern part of Nigeria to set aside extraneous considerations and ensured that South East unanimously adopted me for the Presidency. ”This was without regard to the fact that my closest competitor hailed from their part of the country. I truly cherish his God-fearing, dispassionate, moderate and pan-Nigerian approach to national issues and developments, in our multi-ethnic, multi-religious geo-polity.
“He dedicates himself to the service of God and humanity and he continues to play visible roles in national development. Through the Ikeoha Foundation, a non-governmental organization founded by him and his wife, in 1997, he and his wife have rendered a lot of charitable activities, enhancing poor people’s access to quality education and healthcare and building their capacity to participate in mainstream social, political and economic activities of their communities.
Another of such plea came three days ago from the Economic Community of West Africa asking for understanding in the case.
His colleagues at the National Assembly had also raised a team to travel to the UK to see how a soft landing could be negotiated for him.
If jailed today, Ekweremadu will add to the list of Nigerian high profile figures who bagged jail terms in that country.
A former Nigerian Governor James Onanefe Ibori was jailed for stealing.