By Francis Eke 

The Central Criminal Court in the United Kingdom (UK) has extended the detention of former Deputy Senate President,  Senator Ike Ekweremadu by 88 days. He had been in detention since June this year.
At the resumed hearing of the matter today, the court the judge handling the case said he would hear the pretrial applications on October 31, while the actual trial will commence fully on May 2, 2023.

The former deputy senate president and Beatrice, his wife, are facing charges bordering on conspiracy to arrange/facilitate the travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting.

The couple were arrested by London Metropolitan Police in June and appeared before a magistrate court in July. On July 22, the court granted Beatrice bail but refused that of the husband.At the court on Thursday, the senator representing Enugu west asked that a new lawyer represent him.  Thursday’s appearance was the third in the UK court since his arrest.
The London metropolitan police had alleged that David Ukpo, the reported victim at the centre of the organ harvesting allegation, is a 15-year-old boy but the court ruled that he was 21.
Dailynewscraft recalls that the former senator wrote to the UK high commission in December 2021 to support a visa application for Ukpo.

In the letter, Ekweremadu said Ukpo was undergoing medical investigations for a kidney donation to Sonia Ekweremadu, his daughter, who is in need of a kidney transplant and that both Ukpo and Sonia would be at the Royal Free Hospital London.

A prominent member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Ekweremadu served three terms as Nigeria’s deputy senate president from 2007 to 2019 and has been a senator since 2003. He also served as local government chairman and secretary to the government of Enugu state before coming to the senate.