London, May 5, 2023 (Reuters\/NAN) A London court has jailed Nigerian politician Ike Ekweremadu for nine years and eight months in Britain\u2019s first illegal organ-harvesting prosecution, the Crown Prosecution Service said on Friday.<\/p>\n
Ekweremadu\u2019s wife Beatrice, 56, and London-based doctor Obinna Obeta, 51, were sentenced to four years and six months, and ten years, respectively, the CPS said, for conspiring to arrange the travel of a man in order to harvest his organs.<\/p>\n
They were convicted in March of trafficking a street trader from Lagos to Britain to illegally harvest his kidney for a transplant for their sick daughter.<\/p>\n
Ike Ekweremadu, is a senator and Deputy Senate President of Nigeria. He was born on May 12, 1962 at Amachara Mpu Village in Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State,\u00a0into the\u00a0royal family of\u00a0the late Igwe Mathias Ekweremadu, the Okwaa Anekeoji 1 of Mpu, Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State.<\/p>\n
Ike Ekweremadu is 60 years old.<\/p>\n
On completing primary school education, Ekweremadu proceeded to St. Dominic\u2019s Secondary School, Ugiri, Imo State and then transferred to Boys\u2019 Secondary School, Umueze Awkunanaw, where he obtained a Grade 1 in his West African School Certificate.<\/p>\n
He\u00a0secured\u00a0admission to study\u00a0Law at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and graduated in 1986.\u00a0He completed\u00a0Law School\u00a0and\u00a0was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1987.<\/p>\n
Thereafter, he\u00a0went\u00a0further to obtain his Masters in Law\u00a0from the same University in 1999 and then completed his Doctorate programme at the University of Abuja in 2014.<\/p>\n
Ike Ekweremadu began his political career\u00a0at\u00a0the grassroots\u00a0when he held\u00a0the position of Chairman of Mpu Town Union, Enugu State.<\/p>\n
He was elected the pioneer Chairman of Aninri Local Government Council\u00a0when it\u00a0was created in 1997.\u00a0 His performance won him the Best Council Chairman\u00a0award\u00a0of the year in 1997.<\/p>\n
He\u00a0was appointed Chief of Staff, Enugu State Government House and subsequently the Secretary to the Government of Enugu State\u00a0from\u00a01999 to 2003.<\/p>\n
In 2003, Ekweremadu,\u00a0for the first time,\u00a0contested in the Senatorial election and won. He was elected Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to represent Enugu West Senatorial District on\u00a0the platform of\u00a0the\u00a0Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).<\/p>\n
While in the Senate,\u00a0Ekweremadu\u00a0was elected the Deputy President of the\u00a0Nigerian\u00a0Senate in 2007. As the\u00a0Deputy President\u00a0of the Senate,\u00a0he was given the job of handing out committee chairmanship positions allocated to the southeast zone, making decisions that were unpopular with some senators.<\/p>\n
In July 2007,\u00a0he\u00a0was instrumental\u00a0to\u00a0defusing objections to the controversial nomination of\u00a0Ojo Maduekwe to a\u00a0ministerial position.<\/p>\n
In September 2009, Ekweremadu was made co-chairman of a committee to conduct the primary elections for the Peoples Democratic Party\u2019s governorship\u00a0aspirants\u00a0in\u00a0Anambra State.\u00a0In September 2009, he was appointed to lead\u00a0the\u00a0Economic Community of West African States\u00a0(ECOWAS).<\/p>\n
He\u00a0was\u00a0also\u00a0in an\u00a0ad hoc\u00a0committee whose duty was to work for the return of constitutional order in\u00a0Niger Republic.<\/p>\n
He was elected First Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament and emerged the Speaker of the regional parliament in August 2011. Again in\u00a02011, he retained his position as Deputy President of the Senate.<\/p>\n
In the senatorial election\u00a0of 2015,\u00a0he again contested and was re-elected as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to represent Enugu West Senatorial District. It is important to state here that he was again adopted as the Deputy President of the\u00a0Senate.<\/p>\n
Sen.\u00a0Ekweremadu has several motions and bills to his credit.\u00a0 In addition, he was the Chairman of the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on the 1999 Constitution Review.\u00a0The free and fair elections experienced in 2011 derives its credence\u00a0from\u00a0the Electoral Reform which was duly facilitated by the Constitution Review Committees of the National Assembly.<\/p>\n
Ekweremadu is happily married to Lady Nwanneka Ekweremadu\u00a0(PhD)\u00a0and the\u00a0family\u00a0is\u00a0blessed with four children.<\/p>\n
The senator\u00a0has to his credit several awards, honours,\u00a0and traditional titles.\u00a0 He was inducted as a Knight of the Order of the Good Shepherd, Diocese of Enugu (Anglican Communion)<\/p>\n
His Awards, Honours,\u00a0and Recognitions include:<\/p>\n
Dr Kwame Nkrumah Africa Leadership Award<\/p>\n
Doctor of Laws, LLD (Honoris Causa) University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State<\/p>\n
Ochiagha Ndigbo (Generalissimo of Igboland) by Eze Nri, the custodian of Igbo culture and tradition;<\/p>\n
Ikeoha Ndigbo (Pride and Strength of Ndigbo) by the South East Council of Traditional Rulers.<\/p>\n
He also holds the National Honour of the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR).<\/p>\n
His net worth was not available at the time of his fall from grace. (Reuters\/NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London, May 5, 2023 (Reuters\/NAN) A London court has jailed Nigerian politician Ike Ekweremadu for nine years and eight months in Britain\u2019s first illegal organ-harvesting prosecution, the Crown Prosecution Service said on Friday. Ekweremadu\u2019s wife Beatrice, 56, and London-based doctor Obinna Obeta, 51, were sentenced to four years and six months, and ten years, respectively, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":58613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[295,3595,2771],"class_list":["post-63812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ekweremadu","tag-london","tag-sentenced"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}