Femi Fani-Kayode has said he can not assume that former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu and his wife are guilty of the allegations leveled against the due by the Metropolitan Police in the United Kingdom.
Fani-Kayode said, “Unless and until I see the evidence or they are proved so by a duly constituted court of law. There is a presumption of innocence in criminal matters and this is what I hold on to.
He said, “It is unacceptable and a crime under British law for a man to take a child into the UK for the purpose of removing its organs for someone else’s use. Under the law a child can not give its consent for such a course of action and neither can the parents give consent for such an abominable act on behalf of their wards.”
“Children have rights. They are not slaves or chattel that can be bought or sold for their body parts. Their parents do not have the right to sell them off for this purpose or for any other purpose or neither does anyone have the right to buy the child or any of his or her body parts,” he added.
Fani-Kayode prayed for the Ekweremadu family just as he also prayed for the ailing child, asking God to grant us more sensitivity, compassion, love and kindness in the country, especially for our children.
If we recall Ekweremadu and wife, Beatrice, after their arrest earlier this week, were denied bail by an Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court in the United Kingdom.
A letter, dated 28 December 2021 by the senator requesting a British visa for a 15 year-old organ donor for his daughter, which emerged online on Thursday, stated that the said boy was to donate a kidney to Ekweremadu’s daughter Sonia.
The document reads partly, “David and Sonia will be at the Royal Free Hospital London and I will be providing the necessary funding.”
Although the visa letter also revealed the identity of Ekweremadu’s kidney donor, the age of the would-be-donor has raised dust in the public domain.
The Metropolitan Police, according to reports, had begun investigating the case in May this year, before Ekweremadu and his wife Beatrice were arrested, along with the boy-donor at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday.
The kidney procedures were scheduled to be carried out at the Royal Free Hospital London.
But, police were alerted to potential offences under modern slavery laws last month.
