On Thursday, June 23, former deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Beatrice, were arraigned before a court in London on charges of allegedly conspiring to facilitate the travel of a young Nigerian, David Nwanini Ukpo, for organ harvesting.
As widely reported, Senator Ekweremadu’s daughter, Sonia, has a kidney problem and her parents decided to contact and arrange for Ukpo to travel to the United Kingdom (UK) for the purpose of taking one of his kidneys and transferring it to Sonia.
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As the reports further stated, it was at the point where Ukpo was to be operated upon for this purpose that the United Kingdom authorities were alerted.
Although the matter is under trial now both in the UK and Nigeria and the details of the age of Ukpo and how the contact and travel arrangements were made for him to travel to the UK by the Ekweremadu’s have still not been fully determined, there are salient issues that need to be examined.
It has been observed that since the story of Ekweremadu’s arrest and arraignment broke, a flurry of actions have been taken that seek to accord him all necessary assistance and convenience in his current ordeal. Expense and measure have not been spared in order to provide Senator Ekweremadu and his wife now under the custody of British authorities’ support.
The Nigeria High Commissioner in London, Sarafa Tunji Isola, has been mandated to provide all the necessary consular support to the Ekweremadu’s for which the full resources of the high commission have been mobilised. In addition, the best possible legal services on offer in London have been procured to defend him in court.
Back home in Nigeria, Senate President Ahmed Lawan has mobilised the full weight of the National Assembly behind him. A high-powered Senate delegation led by Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, was constituted and sent to London to meet with Ekweremadu.
Similarly, the House of Representatives summoned both the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, and the Director General of Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to explain the crux of the case and to establish the true age of David Ukpo from their records.
In themselves, all these measures may be considered necessary, considering Senator Ekweremadu’s status as a ranking senator and former deputy Senate president.
But we have also observed that the young man, David Nwamini Ukpo, who is at the centre of it all and at the moment considered a victim, has been given scarce attention. And he is a Nigerian as well. To the best of our knowledge, nothing near the support given to Senator Ekweremadu has been accorded him by the same Nigerian government. While resources of government both here and in the UK are being mobilised to work in favour of Senator Ekweremadu, Citizen David Ukpo, who is also under custody, has been largely left to his own devices.
That this is the case goes to demonstrate the class identity and solidarity among the Nigerian elite. The attention lavished on Senator Ekweremadu as against the little or none extended to David Ukpo is a classic example of different strokes for different folks prevalent in the Nigerian system. Daily Trust newspaper recently published an editorial on the plight of about 800 Nigerians awaiting execution in various jails in South Asian countries. There are as yet an undetermined number of Nigerians in various countries around the world battling one legal issue or the other. It is not known whether the resources of the Nigerian government have been deployed in the manner that has been done in Senator Ekweremadu’s case to assist them one way or the other. This for all practical purposes paints a negative picture about the social imbalances in the application of rights and privileges in our system. This stands in sharp contrast to what obtains in other countries, where citizens, no matter their social status, are granted full recognition of privileges and rights.
In the aftermath of the incident, we have seen a situation where members of the Nigerian elite have taken turns to subtly and in some cases overtly cast aspersions on David Ukpo, even when the matter is still under investigation.
The Nigerian government should note that in Senator Ekweremadu’s trial, the country is also in the dock as to how it treats its citizens on issues that affect their well-being. And on this score with the world watching, the government must demonstrate that it is committed to according every citizen his or her rights and privileges. David Nwamini Ukpo should also be given the same treatment as Senator Ekweremadu, being that both are involved in this incident at least until the investigation is completed and a guilty verdict is passed.
What is good for Senator Ekweremadu should also be good for David Ukpo.
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