Ike Ekweremadu Discloses the True Reason Why He Looked Outside His Family for Kidney Donors
Former Deputy Senate President and Senator Ike Ekweremadu insists that his doctor told him not to ask his family for a kidney donation.
This information was revealed by Ekweremadu to a London court on Thursday during cross-examination in a criminal case involving organ trafficking and harvesting.
Remember that the congressman and his wife, Beatrice, are accused of luring a young man from Nigeria to have his organs harvested for their critically ill daughter, Sonia, who is also on trial. They are facing accusations in the UK.
Once the young man complained to UK authorities about their alleged plans to harvest his organ, Ekweremadu was detained and has since remained in their custody.
Daily Mail reports that the young man, a 21-year-old trader from Lagos, Nigeria, was to be rewarded for donating a kidney to Sonia in an £80,000 private procedure at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
However, while cross-examining Ekweremadu on Thursday, Prosecutor Hugh Davies KC said,
“On the question of whether a family member could, in principle, act as a donor, you decided that wasn’t possible based on a reported conversation between your non-nephrologist brother and Dr [Obinna] Obeta, a non-nephrologist?”Ekweremadu responded,
“He would’ve had basic knowledge. I am not a doctor, so if he says so, I believe him.”Nevertheless, Davies said,
“All you had to do, rather than rely on a second-hand account from non-nephrologists, was to ask one of the specialists you were consulting whether a family member could donate a kidney.”
Ekweremadu, therefore, insisted that he had “limited intelligence,
” a claim that was not accepted by the prosecutor, who said, “It’s incredible. You do not lack intelligence.”Davies then added,
“The fact is you didn’t even try to ask Sonia’s cousins, for example, to consider acting as a donor.
“What you’re saying is you had no intention of anyone in your family – immediate or extended – stepping up to donate a kidney to Sonia.
“Far better to buy one and let the medical risk go to someone you don’t know.”
In response, Ekweremadu said it ‘wasn’t true’, adding that he agreed to acquire a donor by going through agents for the task.
Meanwhile, Ekweremadu will remain in custody while the trial of his family and a medical “middleman”, Obinna Obeta, continues at the Old Bailey house in London.
Hnmmm, there’s more to this story.