The Central Criminal Court in the United Kingdom (UK) has adjourned the trial of a former deputy president of the senate, Ike Ekweremadu over an alleged organ harvesting till October 31.
The former deputy senate president and his wife, Beatrice, are facing charges bordering on conspiracy to arrange/facilitate the travel of another person with a view to harvesting his organ.
The couple were arrested by London Metropolitan Police in June and appeared before a magistrate court in July, this year and while Ekweremadu’s wife was granted bail on July 22, the deputy Senate president was denied bail
During his trial on Thursday, the senator representing Enugu west asked that a new lawyer represent him in the matter.
The Police had alleged that David Ukpo, the reported victim at the centre of the organ harvesting allegation is a 15-year-old but the court ruled that he is 21 years old.
The former senator wrote to the UK high commission in December 2021 to support a visa application for Ukpo, whom he said was undergoing medical investigations for a kidney donation to Sonia Ekweremadu, his daughter, who is in need of a kidney transplant.
The embattled politician is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and served three terms as deputy senate president from 2007 to 2019 and has been a senator since 2003.
According to the allegations, the defendants were accused of (using intermediaries) to recruit David Ukpo, a homeless Nigerian male living in Lagos and, on 22nd February 2022, and brought him to the UK for the purposes of harvesting a kidney from him to be used for the benefit of their daughter. (Tribune)
