Former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has asked the United Kingdom’s Central Criminal Court to be lenient in the case of former Deputy Senate President Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who is accused of organ trafficking.
He stated this in a letter to the Court dated 3 April 2023, in which he described Senator Ekweremadu as “God-fearing, dispassionate, moderate, and pan-Nigerian…”
Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, and Dr Obinna Obeta, 50, were convicted of conspiring to exploit the man for his kidney in the first such case under modern slavery laws for allegedly smuggling a 21-year-old man to the UK from Lagos.
Chief Obasanjo appealed to the Court 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.”
He said further “I hope Mr and Mrs Ekweremadu have learnt from this distressing experience of theirs to guide their future actions or inactions so they will continue to be outstanding members of their community…”