On Monday, Beatrice Ekweremadu, the wife of Senator Ike Ekweremadu, was granted bail by a London court.
Mrs. Beatrice was arrested in June alongside her husband, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, on suspicion of trafficking a 21-year-old for the purpose of organ harvesting.
The couple was accused of attempting to smuggle 21-year-old David Ukpo from Nigeria to the United Kingdom in order to transplant his organs into their daughter, who has kidney failure.
While Senator Ike was charged with conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the travel of another person for the purpose of exploitation, namely organ harvesting, Beatrice was charged with arranging or facilitating the travel of another person for the purpose of exploitation between August 1 and May 5, 2015, in accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Judge Richard Marks said: ‘The position is that I have granted bail to Beatrice subject to some fairly stringent conditions but I have refused bail to Ike.’
Senator Ike was denied bail and has been detained since July 7. The couple will appear in court again on August 4 at the Old Bailey.
Obinna Obeta, a 50-year-old doctor from Southwark, South London, was accused of conspiring with Senator Ekwerenmadu to traffic the boy for organ harvesting.
The senator, through his attorney, had sued the NIMC over the alleged organ harvesting victim’s age.
They requested that the court order NIMC to produce the boy’s NIN in order to facilitate the criminal investigation and tendering before the Uxbridge magistrate court.
They requested that the court order NIMC to produce the boy’s NIN in order to facilitate the criminal investigation and tendering before the Uxbridge magistrate court.
On July 1, Justice Inyang Ekwo directed the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and others to provide former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, with the Certified True Copy (CTC) of David Ukpo’s biodata.
BarristerNG also reported that the Nigerian government hired lawyers to represent the senator and his wife.
On July 1, a delegation from Nigeria’s Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs left for London to visit the couple in detention.
