Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court on Friday ordered the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to release the biodata of David Nwamini to Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife who are standing trial at a London Court over allegations of plans to harvest Nwamini’s kidney for their ailing daughter.
Justice Ekwo ordered the NIMC, the Comptroller General of the NIS, Stanbic-IBTC Bank, United Bank of Africa (UBA) and Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc to furnish the former deputy senate president and wife with official details of Nwamini.
It will be recalled that the London Metropolitan Police arrested the Mr and Mrs Ekweremadu on the basis of an allegation that Nwamini, whom the couple took to London for alleged organ harvesting, was a minor.
Prosecutors alleged that the couple brought Nwamini, said to be a 15-year-old minor from Nigeria to the UK on the pretext that he was to be offered better opportunities in the UK but with a hidden motive to harvest his organ. Both husband and wife were denied bail when charged last week, but insisted that Nwamini was 21 years old.
They intend to prove their claim with the alleged victims’ official records in the custody of the relevant Nigerian authorities.
Apart from the NIMC, others sued by the Ekweremadu and wife include the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Stanbic-IBTC Bank, United Bank of Africa (UBA) and Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc.
The couple would again be brought before the London court on July 7, when the case was adjourned to.
Justice Ekwo ordered the NIMC, the Comptroller General of the NIS, Stanbic-IBTC Bank, United Bank of Africa (UBA) and Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc to furnish the former deputy senate president and wife with official details of Nwamini.
In the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/984/2022, the plaintiffs asked the court to direct the NIMC to avail them the Certified True Copy of Mr Nwamini’s biodata information for the purposes of tendering same before the British Court in the pending criminal charge against them.
The suit followed the disclosure by immigration authorities in Nigeria that Mr Nwamini’s records from the National Population Commission (NPC) and NIMC gave his date of birth as October 12, 2000, as against the alleged claims by the organ donor that he is a 15-year-old.
In the court papers, Ekweremadu’s lawyer, Adegboyega Awomolo, said Mr Nwamini was flown to the UK with his consent to be a kidney donor for their daughter.
But upon a medical examination of Nwamini’s kidneys, it was discovered that none was a match for the couple’s daughter, the documents stated.
