BARELY TWO YEARS AFTER Beatrice Ekweremadu, the wife of a former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, was sentenced to four years and six months over an organ trafficking plot, she returned to Nigeria.
According to a source of The Punch Newspaper who craved anonymity, the convict who was supposed to serve for 4 years and 6 months in UK prison, returned to the country on Tuesday.
The report is archived here.
She is reportedly in Abuja currently.
It was learnt that her family’s home in the Mpu village of the Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State is now celebrating.
In 2023, a UK court sentenced Beatrice, her husband, and a woman named Obinna Obeta to varying jail terms for the organ trafficking scheme.
The president of the Mpu Town Union Federated, Mr. Benjamin Chijioke, told our reporter during the community-wide celebration that her homecoming was a great relief to everyone in the town.
However, Chijioke appealed to God to step in and help their son Ekweremadu so that he would come home in good health, just like his wife.
“As Mpu people, our joy knows no bounds,” he stated. For us, today is fantastic. In every community, there has been joy and celebration since the morning.
People are crying with happiness, especially those who rely on the family’s kind nature to get by. Our Orie market day is today, and the entire market was a flurry of activity.
“We thank God and also pray that God will intervene so that our illustrious aeon and leader, Distinguished Senator Ike Ekweremadu will join his family soonest. I don’t know what to say again because their absence has brought a huge setback to the community. We missed them a lot but we thank God for everything.”
Ogbuka Edwin, the councillor for Mpu Ward, also spoke and praised God for her return, pointing out that the absence of Ekweremadu and his wife had caused a significant rift in the community.
“Today is like a public holiday in Mpu Community,” Edwin stated. The news was good. A significant void was left in the society by the absence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his spouse.
“We are not going to relent in our prayers until our hero and leader joins his family and we are trusting what God can do. It is celebration galore.”
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The Explainer reported that Ike Ekweremadu, the deputy president of the Nigerian Senate, was sentenced to nine years and eight months in jail for his involvement in an organ trafficking scheme.
In addition, the court condemned his wife, Beatrice, to four years and six months in prison, while Dr Obinna Obeta, the physician who served as a “middleman” in the scheme, was given a 10-year term and had his medical license revoked.
According to The Explainer, the jury determined that they had criminally plotted to transport a 21-year-old street vendor from Lagos to London to take advantage of him for his kidney.
In an unsuccessful attempt to convince physicians to perform an £80,000 private surgery at the Royal Free Hospital in London, the young guy was allegedly misrepresented as Sonia’s cousin.
After kidney failure led Sonia to drop out of Newcastle University’s master’s program in cinema, the young guy allegedly received an unlawful incentive to become a donor for her.
Under the Modern Slavery Act, their conviction was the first such decision.
Following petitions from a number of well-known individuals and organisations, including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the sentence was handed down.
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Chairman/CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC), and both houses of the National Assembly were among the other petitioners.
