Ekweremadu: A plea for leniency
30th April 2023
The Central Criminal Court in London, United Kingdom (UK), will in a matter of days sentence former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, and two others who were convicted of illegal organ harvesting on March 23, 2023. Except the UK authorities temper justice with mercy, Ekweremadu and two others stand the risk of 10 years imprisonment in line with the provisions of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 of the United Kingdom.
On June 23, 2022, Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice and a Nigerian doctor, Obinna Obeta, were charged in a UK court of trafficking a 21-year old Nigerian boy and street hawker in Lagos to London for illegal harvesting of his kidney for their sick daughter, Sonia. They were convicted on March 23, 2023. The prosecution stated that Ekweremadu and his wife lured the victim to London in February last year, with promises of a good life in UK with sole intent to harvest his kidney for their sick daughter.
The prosecution further held: ‘While donating a kidney is lawful in Britain, it is a criminal offence to offer a reward, regardless of whether the donor is complicit.’ The UK police also said, ‘the guilty verdict marked the first time someone had been convicted in Britain of human trafficking for the purpose of organ harvesting.’
Since the conviction of Ekweremadus, some concerned Nigerians have pleaded for leniency on their behalf. Former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, had on April 3 written to the Chief Clerk of the court and pleaded to the UK authorities to be lenient with the Ekweremadus. Obasanjo had in his letter stated: ‘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-year old from Nigeria to the UK in order to harvest organs for their daughter.’ Although the former leader condemned their action, which he said was unpleasant and could not be tolerated in any sane society, however, he urged the UK authorities to grant them leniency.
‘It is my fervent desire that for the very warm relations between the United Kingdom and the 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 an urgent medical attention, you will use your good offices to intervene and appeal to the court and the Kingdom 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,’ Obasanjo stated.
We plead with the UK government and the court to show mercy to the Ekweremadus considering the circumstances that led to the offence in the first place. If Ike Ekweremadu and his wife are given a harsh sentence, it will aggravate the health condition of their sick daughter.
Like Obasanjo, we also urge the court to be lenient with the Ekweremadus so that they will take care of their daughter. Although ignorance is not an excuse in law, it is possible that Ekweremadu might not be aware of the organ harvesting law in the UK.
Since the Ekweremadus are probably the first offenders under this law, we plead for mercy on their behalf. Senator Ike Ekweremadu is a patriotic Nigerian who has contributed so much to the development of the country in diverse ways. Their matter should be handled with compassion. What happened to Ekweremadu can happen to any other Nigerian.
No doubt, the Ekweremadus must have learnt a lot of lessons from their ordeals and will not toe this path again. The Nigerian government should intervene and do everything within its powers to ameliorate the sentence for the Ekweremadus considering the senator’s immense contributions to the development of our democracy.
Other Nigerians, especially those engaged in medical tourism, must have learnt one or two lessons from the travails of the Ekweremadus. While those in search of medical care abroad are enjoined to seek both medical and legal advice in some specific areas of health care, we urge the federal government to fix the health sector and stem the penchant for medical tourism by our political office holders. The government should invest so much resources to the health sector and halt the exodus of Nigerian doctors to United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Senator Ike Ekweremadu, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was the Deputy President of the Senate from 2007-2019. He has served in the Senate since 2003.