Femi Ashekun/
The Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court in London has denied the former deputy president of the Nigerian Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife Beatrice Ekweremadu, bail after the London Metropolitan Police arraigned them for alleged human trafficking and child organ harvesting conspiracy.
The prosecution in their argument claimed that the alleged victim, David Ukpo is 15 years old and not 21 as purported by Ekweremadu and his wife.
The police also insisted that Ukpo was picked up on the streets of Lagos by the Ekweremadus.
According to the prosecution, the doctors who attended to Ukpo were not convinced that he wanted to donate his organ willingly.
They also told the court that he (Ukpo) handed himself over to the Police.
NewsmakersNG had reported that the police, last Thursday, arrested and charged the couple with conspiracy to harvest the organs of a child brought to London by them.
According to the prosecutors, the Ekweremadus were being charged for bringing a 15-year-old boy from Nigeria to the UK with the claim that he was to be given a better life in the UK but was actually to harvest his organ.
The prosecutors reportedly informed the court that Ekweremadu procured a passport for the boy and claimed he was 21 years old but the prosecutors discovered that he was 15 years old.
According to the prosecutors, the couple’s daughter has a kidney-related disease and has been on dialysis for some time. They added that they believe the plan was to use an organ from the boy on their daughter who appears to need a kidney transplant.
Arise News also reported that the former deputy senate president and his wife had separate legal representations and prayed the court to release them on bail but their prayer was dismissed by the Magistrate.
The couple has surrendered their passports to the UK government.
The Magistrate ordered they be remanded in custody until July 7, 2022, for the next hearing on the case.
Meanwhile, a Federal High Court, Abuja, has ordered the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and others to release the certified true copy (CTC) of Ukpo’s biodata to Ekweremadu, and his wife.
Justice Inyang Ekwo gave the ruling today following an originating summon marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/984/2022, moved by Ekweremadu’s counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN.
Ekweremadu and his wife had, in the application dated and filed on June 27 by Awomolo, sued NIMC and four others.
Others mentioned in the suit are the Comptroller General (C-G), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS); Stanbic-IBTC Bank; United Bank of Africa (UBA), and Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc as 2nd to 5th respondents respectively.
But in the originating summon, the duo prayed the court for an order directing all the defendants to supply them with the CTC of Ukpo’s biodata information in their care for the purpose of facilitating the criminal investigation and tendering the same to establish their innocence with respect to Ukpo’s age in the criminal charges against them before the Uxbridge Magistrate Court.
When the matter was called, Awomolo informed the court that an application had been filed, seeking the order to strike out the name of the 5th defendant (Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc) and Justice Ekwo granted the prayer.
The senior lawyer told the court that all the defendants had been served with the court processes.
Justice Ekwo then asked the lawyer of the 4th defendant (United Bank of Africa), G. O. Maduka, if they were served and he responded in the affirmative.
According to him, after going through their motion on notice, we felt we have no reaction to it.
Moving his motion, Awomolo said the application dated and filed on June 27 was supported by an affidavit and a written address.
“I respectfully adopted all the processes, my Lord,” he said.
Awomolo, however, called the attention of the court to letters written by the defendants, indicating that until his client’s application is granted by the court, “they will not be able to respond to their request.”
In a short ruling, the judge held that having been satisfied that the defendants had been served and looking at the averments in the application, “I make an order granting the prayers.”
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