PBA ReporterTo exhume the cliché, the media were awash on Thursday with the news that the UK police had arrested Senator Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Beatrice Ekweremadu, for conspiring to bring a child to the UK for organ harvesting.
Indeed, the story succeeded in breaking the internet.
London Metropolitan Police charged the Ekweremadus with conspiracy to arrange/facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting, a charge that adds another dimension to the stigma of trafficking which has trailed Nigerians for years.
Probing deeper into the emerging story, newsmen gathered that the senator’s daughter has been suffering from a kidney disease so needed a transplant.
Subsequently, a donor was gotten and sent to the UK for investigation with the aim of providing a kidney. But the kidney did not match that of Ekweremadu’s child.
The donor was then billed to return to Nigeria but he refused to return and instead reported to the UK police to seek asylum, a situation which then warranted the arrest of the lawmaker and his wife.
Arraigned before a Magistrates’ Court in Uxbridge, the Ekweremadu’s pleaded not guilty to the charges which Magistrate Lois Sheard termed ‘serious allegations’ before adjourning the case until July 7.
Expectedly, the couple has been remanded in custody ahead of their hearing next month, while the ‘child’ at the centre of the storm has been safeguarded even as police continue working closely with partner agencies to get to the root of the matter.
Let’s say the above is just a backgrounder. Interestingly, many persons have continued to ask many questions even though investigations are ongoing.
Let’s take a look at some of the burning questions right now. Please permit us. We shall make it a question and straight answer session. Let’s go!
Is organ donation/transplant a crime in the UK?
No. However, the process of organ donation and transplanting have legislations that guide them and these legislations slightly vary in England, Scotland, Wales and the Northern Ireland.
Did the Ekweremadus obtain consent and from who?
While we await the findings, this question can only be answered if relatives of the individual involved come out to speak on the matter.
If the donor was underaged, how did he obtain a falsified international passport?
If established that the donor in the Ekweremadu’s case is indeed a minor, and his passport was falsified, then it really calls to question all that the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) boasts of and the trust vested in the service, especially in this time when there are links between international passports and the National Identification Number (NIN).
What legislation does Nigeria have regarding organ donation?
While one is tempted to out-rightly say that Nigeria has no legislation regarding organ donation and transplant, it is safer to say that the nation has a National Health Act, 2014 which contains many loopholes and does not cover the full scope of the practice in our world today.
Great!
Do you have any question regarding this brouhaha? Please add it to this post. To do so, please make use of the comments. Thanks.
I am saddened about the media spectacle surrounding the arrest of Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, for the alleged trafficking of a minor for organ harvesting. The newspapers and social media focus on the wrong issue. It is wrong to make a judgment without knowing all the facts—the public must wait and let the court in the UK sort out the case.
The Media should focus the discussions/conversations on two essential things.
First, we should consider the welfare of the sick child, Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s daughter. She does not deserve all these negative publicities. She is sick and needs an organ transplant. Our prayers should be for her to find a matching donor and to have a complete recovery. Sadly, her private medical information is now a public record. People need to show empathy and respect her privacy.
Nigeria’s poor (and failed) medical/Health sector should be another focus of the conversation. Nigerians need to use this medical-related event to talk about the failure of our politicians to do something about the health sector. I cannot comprehend why the Nigerian ruling elites purposely refused to upgrade the deplorable condition of the health sector. Most elected politicians do not care about building, equipping, and staffing hospitals. When politicians and wealthy Nigerians are sick, they fly to foreign countries for treatment. Why can’t they invest in the Nigerian medical sector? President Buhari spent several months in the UK for treatment. The money spent on his medical tourism would have been enough to build two hospitals in his hometown in Katsina.
Here are the facts. Nigerians take over two million medical trips overseas each year. Nigerians need a minimum of 14,000 hospitals and clinics built every year for the next ten years to meet the demand of the population,
According to the census, about 190 million people live in Nigeria, and slightly over 10 million Nigerian live outside the country. When most poor and disadvantaged Nigerians get sick, they run to the local pharmacies for drugs. There are no local hospitals for them, especially if they live in the villages and small towns.
Good one! This story addressed some of the questions I have been seeking answers to