EKWEREMADU’S TRAVAIL: LET’S PAUSE FOR A SECOND

Finally a UK court did what has been in the offing for months now by sentencing former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu to 9 years and 8 months for trafficking in human organ

His doctor, who is the link man bagged 10 years while Mrs Ekweremadu will remain behind the bar for four years too

Ekweremadu by the court’s judgement would have the privilege of seeking for a review of the sentence only after he must have served atleast 2/3 of his sentence ( 6 years )

What was the cross of the matter , Ekweremadu and the other convicts solicited for the donation of a kidney from a Nigerian man David Nwamini in order to save their ailing daughter who is suffering from kidney failure.

He was ferried to London and in the course of trying to get him ready for the operation , the boy bolted and reported to the police

The rest is now history ( I don’t need to go into details)

According to David he was never told he was being ferried to UK for Kidney donation

Whether this is true or not its between him and his God

Did David also take advantage of the Ekweremadu’s too to relocate to the UK , that is between him and his God to

But he probably has achieved a cardinal part of his plans

First he said he was a minor , lied about his age but it was later found out that he was not underage

The judge in sentencing Ekweremadu said he took advantage of the poverty of the youg man to exploit him

He also admitted that Ekweremadu is a man of good character who has never been convicted before

The question I’ll ask , who will be in Ekweremadu’s shoe and would not do anything ( legally ) and humanly possible to save their child ( I’ll do )

What would it have caused David to just walk away and disappear rather than going to the police as he did if not for some motives

Many people have donated kidneys to people across the globe, it is also known that people have resorted to selling theirs for monetary gains

Without absorbing Ekweremadu of any wrongdoing, I still believe this matter could have been handled in a better way

Now the poor girl who seriously needs a new kidney will be without his parents for a long time , she may even die

A big lesson for everyone

In all this , the Ekweremadu’s will serve out their sentence if their appeals fails

Their life will never be the same again

But for David , I still believe this will haunt him for the rest of his life

There is no way he ll convince me that he was not aware he was going to donate a kidney to a dying girl

I don’t follow the crowd that said if Ekweremadu had built a world class hospital in Nigeria this will not happen to him

Is it his duty to build one .

That is the duty of the Government and individuals who so desires

How many legislators in other countries have built world class hospitals

That should not be a basis to condemn him

I may be in the minority on this matter but as a father , I feel for the Ekweremadu’s

Only God knows what lies in the future for them and their sick daughter

Chris Kehinde Nwandu is a Journalist and UK Certified Arbitrator