By Demilade Adeniyi
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has weighed in on the conviction of Nigeria’s former Deputy Senate President Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who alongside his wife have been found guilty and convicted by a United Kingdom court on allegations of trafficking for the purpose of organ harvesting in the UK.
Ekweremadu and wife were arrested last year July alongside his wife over the case of a young man, aged 21, who alleged that he was trafficked to the UK by the Senator and his family for the sake of his daughter who has been on sick bed in a London hospital with health complications and requesting kidney transplant.
The Senator and his wife were convicted last month, though their sentence were yet to be pronounced.
Weighing in on Wednesday, former President Olusegun Obasanjo urged the United Kingdom particularly Central Criminal Court located in Old Bailey, London to be temper justice with mercy on the matter, in the name of the good will existing between both countries and in the interest of the young girl whose medical case may go worse if her both parents are made to pay the supreme price for their efforts in seeking medical help for her.
In a two pages letter addressed to the Chief Clerk of the court, the former President urged the court to be “magnanimous enough to temper justice with mercy” on the matter.
Obasanjo who admitted that though the matter is unpleasant condemnable and can’t be tolerated in any sane or civilized society, however, the court should look at all the ramifications of the matter before arriving at any judgment.
He said: “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 he 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 ensure that the judgment that may have come take their good character, parental instinct and care into consideration.”
Here is the letter, personally signed by the former Nigerian leader.
