By Bukola Olasanmi
Ex-Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, is expected to spend Christmas in prison after a London court again denied him bail.
The Central Criminal Court, London, otherwise known as the Old Bailey, denied Ekweremadu bail on the grounds that he is a flight risk.
Ekweremadu and his wife were arrested in the UK in June on organ harvesting charges.
It is alleged that they conspired with others unknown and with another family member, Isaac Ekweremadu, to arrange the travel of a 21-year-old with a view to exploiting him between August 1, 2021 and May 5 this year.
They facilitated his travel from Lagos to London to remove one of his kidneys, it is claimed.
Property forfeiture
Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, had ordered the interim forfeiture of 40 properties belonging to Ekweremadu.
He directed that anybody who had an interest in the properties should approach the court within 14 days to show cause why the properties should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
Ekweremadu, through his lawyers, approached the court for an order to annul the interim order for the forfeiture of the properties both home and abroad.
The former deputy senate president through his counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), blamed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for his travails, adding that the court granted the forfeiture order inadvertently because the commission withheld information and facts regarding the assets.
In a pre-trial hearing on Tuesday, the London court based its latest decision on the letter and assets forfeiture proceedings against the Enugu West Senator by the EFCC.
In the bail application, Ekweremadu’s lawyers argued that the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and the Attorney-General of the Federation, had written to the court that Ekweremadu was not a flight risk.
The legal team further reminded the court that the Nigeria High Commission in the UK had equally given the option of tagging Ekweremadu electronically to monitor his movement.
The team equally cited character attestation by other well-respected Nigerians and organisations as well as Ekweremadu’s involvement in other global causes that champion humanity, noting that the Nigerian senator “is a highly regarded, well-known public figure.”
In the same vein, the defence team argued that the lawmaker had shown himself a caring and responsible father and therefore could not possibly escape from London, abandoning his wife and sick daughter.
The defence further told the court that they had sureties and securities of nearly half a million pounds sterling from 11 people to secure Ekweremadu’s release on bail.
However, as it did during a bail application hearing in July 2022, the prosecution insisted that Ekweremadu was a flight risk.