Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Wednesday wrote to the Chief Clerk of the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, London, making a case for clemency for former deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Beatrice, who was recently convicted for organ harvesting in the United Kingdom.
In a letter dated the 3rd of April, which was obtained by Africa Today News, New York, Obasanjo said while Ekweremadu’s action was condemnable, it was, however, important to take cognizance of his contribution to Nigeria’s development, his good deeds, and the plight of his ailing daughter in meting out punishment to him.
The Old Bailey Court in London had found Ekweremadu, Beatrice, and a medical doctor, Obinna Obeta guilty of conspiring to exploit a 21-year-old street trader from Lagos, with intent to provide his kidney to Sonia (Ekweremadu’s daughter) in an £80,000 private transplant at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
Obasanjo, who said he had known Ekweremadu for over two decades appeal to the court and the government of the United Kingdom to be magnanimous enough to temper justice with mercy and let punishment that may come to the lawmaker take their good character and parental instinct and care into consideration.
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Part of the letter read: ‘I am Olusegun Obasanjo, a soldier commissioned into the British Army of the West African Frontier Force in 1958, and rose to the rank of a full General in the Nigerian Army. I received the surrender of the Biafran Army at the end of the Nigerian civil war. I was military Head of State from 1976 to 1979 and elected President from 1999 to 2007.
‘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 administration… 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. Ike Ekweremadu’s conferment with the coveted national honour of Commander of the Federal Republic, CFR, is further testimony to his selfless service to our country, Nigeria.
‘Mr. Chief Clerk, 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. I do realise the implications of their action and I dare say, it is unpleasant and condemnable and can’t be tolerated in any sane or civilized society.
‘However, it is my fervent desire that for the very warm relations between the United Kingdom and 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 government 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.’
Africa Today News, New York reports that Ekweremadu and wife are expected to sentenced in May.