Senator Ike Ekweremadu, according to the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council (OYC), is being kept out of Nigeria in advance of the 2023 general elections.
In order to ensure the lawmaker’s release, the youth wing of the top Igbo sociocultural organisation requested the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to step in.
In the UK, where he is currently being imprisoned, the former deputy senate president is being tried for allegedly taking organs.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, August 9, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, the National President of OYC, said it is unacceptable that Ekweremadu’s diplomatic passport received no consideration from UK authorities.
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While wondering whether there were different laws for Africans, Ohanaeze said no citizen of the UK, with a diplomatic passport, would be so treated in any African country.
Nnabuike said;
Our enquiries clearly show that the offence for which Ekweremadu was charged is bailable. In addition to this, he has diplomatic immunity, but the UK has ignored all these and chose to perpetually keep him in detention.
This is also despite the fabrications of lies in the statement of the alleged minor, David Nwamini, which have been exposed. We have no option than to believe that certain interests, who are bent on keeping him out of the way ahead of the 2023 general elections have politicised his trial.
There is every indication that his ordeal cannot be divorced from domestic politics, considering the manner Nwamini has acted so far; he is, no doubt, under a serious influence.
It is quite sad that the UK government, which should show example on democracy, is allowing itself to be used. We ask: why is Ekweremdu being treated as a convict? Why the long adjournments? This is where the conspiracy theory meets.
Calls On ECOWAS, Others
The Igbo group called on the ECOWAS parliament, the National Assembly and the Federal Government to demand the immediate release of the Senator.
We expect that the Speaker of the ECOWAS parliament, Rt. Hon. Sidie Mohammed Tunis, should speak up and demand Ekweremadu’s release as a former Speaker of that parliament.
The Federal Government of Nigeria and, indeed, the National Assembly should also prevail on the UK Government to transfer Ekweremadu’s case to Nigeria. We know how individuals with diplomatic passports are treated and why it has not applied to Ekweremadu is beyond our comprehension.
