Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, on Tuesday, appealed to the British government for leniency for convicted former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
The Igbo group made this known when the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo received the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr Richard Montgomery at the National Secretariat of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in Enugu.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo affirmed that it accepted the pronouncement of the trial court that approved nine year and eight months jail term for Ekweremadu in the matter of organ harvesting.
The UK court on May 5, also sentenced his wife, Beatrice and the doctor, Obinna Obeta to four years six months and 10 years in prison respectively.
One of the leaders of the group, Archbishop Emmanuel Chukwuma, said that Ndigbo would be happy should Ekweremadu’s jail term be reduced.
Chukwuma said, “There is a very important issue that we have to bring to your attention. You’re aware of the case of Nigeria’s former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who was convicted and is in jail in your country. He’s from this state and we all know the circumstance he got entangled in that unfortunate incident because he wanted to save his daughter.
“He is already serving a jail term. It’s unfortunate but it has happened. I testified for him during the trial and in fact, the judge mentioned my name two times while delivering his judgment.
“But we’re using the opportunity of your visit to ask for leniency for him so that he doesn’t spend the number of years in jail. We have accepted the judgment, but are saying if there’s anything that could be done to reduce the jail term. He’s from this area and if we don’t bring this thing up as Ohanaeze or from us here, concerning this important son of Igboland, it wouldn’t be nice of us. We are quite overwhelmed”.
Background: Vanguard News Nigeria