Ekweremadu: Obasanjo begs UK court for Leniency…

Former  President Olusegun Obasanjo has written to  the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, London pleading for leniency for the former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife Beatrice, who were convicted of organ trafficking.

The Ekweremadus were on March 28 convicted by the UK court after their trial on the allegation that they lured a young man from Nigeria to the UK for the purpose of harvesting his kidney for their daughter, Sonia, who needed a kidney transplant.

Following the guilty verdict by the UK court, the Ekweremadus are said to be at risk of being sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment by the provisions of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 of the United Kingdom.

The court deferred their sentencing to a later date.

Obasanjo, in a letter dated April 3 and addressed to the Chief Clerk of the court, pleaded to the United Kingdom to temper justice with mercy.

However, 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 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 appeal to the court and the Government of United Kingdom 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.

Obasanjo, in the letter, also described Ekeremadu as a God-fearing politician whom he said he had  known for over two decades.