In an effort to get Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, a lighter sentence, the Senate has joined the House of Representatives, the ECOWAS Parliament, and others in a petition to the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey in London.
Following a motion made by Senator Chukwuka Utazi during Wednesday’s plenary session, the Senate decided to request clemency.
This comes after the UK government was urged to balance justice and mercy on Tuesday by both the House of Representatives and the ECOWAS Parliament.
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In the motion, Senator Utazi cited the enormous contributions Ekweremadu has made to the growth of democracy in Nigeria, West Africa, and beyond. He served as the Deputy Senate President for the Senate for 12 years and the Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament.
He added that Ekweremadu and his wife are first-time offenders with no previous criminal records and that since the matter is in the United Kingdom, a novel approach in sentencing be adopted by tempering justice with mercy, as the publicity was already given to the trial is enough warning to would-be offenders in the future.
Utazi added that this is the first time the Senate has made a request of this nature to the British government to grant clemency for the Ekweremadus and that the British judicial authorities should take into account the long history of good relations between Nigeria and the British government.
In his reply, Senate President Ahmad Lawan stated that the Senate had sent a letter to the British judicial authorities two weeks prior requesting clemency on their behalf.
Prior to being sentenced, Ekweremadu, his wife, and their doctor, Obinna Obeta, were found guilty of trafficking in human organs, marking the first such conviction under the Modern Slavery Act.
After a six-week organ trafficking trial at the Old Bailey, the couple and their doctor on March 23 were found guilty of facilitating the travel of a young man to Britain on behalf of Ekweremadu’s sick daughter, Sonia, with a view to his exploitation.
ENIGERIA NEWSPAPER
