The 21-year-old victim in Santor Ike Ekweremadu’s organ harvesting case, says he is sacred of going back to Nigeria because the people for which he was being prosecuted were powerful people and they could arrest or kill him.
David Nwamini, who is being helped by a charity in the UK, according to his lawyer refused to apply for financial compensation from the Ekweremadu family, telling a detective he did not need anything from them.
The victim in his statement told the court he used to pray every day to be given the opportunity to come to the UK to work or study.
He said to make it happen, he agreed to medical tests in Lagos and meetings with doctors in London, believing that they were required for his UK visa during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 21-year-old Lagos trader said he only realised what was planned when he met doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in London who began discussing a kidney transplant.
“He (Dr Obina Obeta) did not tell me he brought me here for this reason. He did not tell me anything about this. I would have not agreed to any of this. My body is not for sale.
I do not want compensation from “bad people” as it would be “cursed and bad luck.
“I worry for my safety and don’t want to go back to Nigeria because they could arrest me or kill me in Nigeria. My plan now is to work and to get an education and to play football. So I plead with the court to allow me to stay in the UK”.
He also said someone visited his father in Nigeria and asked the father to get him to drop the case.
Ohanaeze reacts to Ike Ekweremadu’s sentenced
Reacting to the court’s judgment, the spokesperson for Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, said the Federal Government did nothing to help the former Deputy Senate President.
Speaking with The Punch in an interview, the spokesperson said: “They did not treat him like someone who has served meritoriously in this country. Rather, while he was facing the travails, the Federal Government came out with charges and allegations of corruption and seized his properties.
“This is a man who has been around you, walked with you for years and when he needed your help, there were busy talking about auctioning his properties. All those things indicated that it was not only the UK court that was after him, but the FG was also after him.”
He contained: Before now, although not as Ohanaeze, we have visited him in prison. We still intend to do so even as he begins his sentence. It is shocking and painful that an illustrious Igbo man of that calibre will be involved in this kind of sentencing. However, there is nothing we can do about it for now.
But I believe Ekweremadu will come out stronger and better. He has always been a strong and courageous man. Ohanaeze prays he comes out healthy to face the world again.”
