The Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has expressed support for former deputy president of the Nigerian Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, over his arrest in the UK.
The London Metropolitan Police charged Mr Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, with conspiracy to traffic a child to the UK in order to harvest his organs, the law enforcement said on Thursday.
The lawmaker and his wife were denied bail after the London Metropolitan Police arraigned them at the Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court in London.
Reacting, Mr Obi, Friday, prayed for justice for the lawmaker as well as the healing of his ailing daughter.
“My family and I are with the Ekweremadus over their travail. We join all men of good will in praying for the healing of their daughter and commit them into God’s hand for justice to be done,” he said via his Twitter handle.
Mr Ekweremadu and his wife were being charged for bringing a 15-year-old boy from Nigeria to the UK with the claim that he was to be given a better life in the UK but was actually to harvest his organ.
The prosecutors reportedly informed the court that Mr Ekweremadu procured a passport for the boy and claimed he was 21 years old, whereas he is 15.
The couple has a daughter with a kidney-related disease and has been on dialysis.
The persecutors said they believe the plan was to use an organ from the boy on their daughter who appears to need a kidney transplant.
The lawmaker and his wife were said to have prayed the court, through their separate legal representations, to release them on bail but their prayer was dismissed by the Magistrate.
The couple has surrendered their passports to the UK government.
PREMIUM TIMES has obtained a late 2021 letter from sources close to Mr Ekweremadu purporting that the lawmaker had written the British High Commission in Nigeria in support of a visa application of a male.
In the letter, Mr Ekweremadu disclosed that the applicant was travelling to the UK for medical examination to possibly donate a kidney to his daughter Sonia.
He said the examination would be carried out at the London Royal Free Hospital.
The letter did not disclose the age of the male but UK prosecutors alleged that the victim is a minor and that Mr Ekweremadu had falsified his age to 21.
The Magistrate ordered they be remanded in custody until July 7, 2022, for the next hearing on the case.
