A former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has revealed that doctors advised him getting a donor for his ailing daughter outside his family.
According to The PUNCH, Ekweremadu stated this while being cross examined at a United Kingdom court.
The lawmaker, Prosecutor Hugh Davies KC said, “On the question of whether a family member could, in principle, act as a donor, you decided that was not possible based on a reported conversation between your non-nephrologist brother and Dr Obeta, a non-nephrologist?”
In response, Ekweremadu said, “He would have had basic knowledge. I’m not a doctor, so if he says so, I believe him.”
However, Davies said, “All you had to do, rather than rely on a second-hand account from non-nephrologists, was to ask one of the specialists you were consulting whether a family member could donate a kidney.”
Ekweremadu, however, suggested he had “limited intelligence,” a claim that was rejected by the prosecutor, who said, “It is incredible. You do not lack intelligence.”
Davies continued, “The fact is you did not even try to ask Sonia’s cousins, for example, to consider acting as a donor.
“What you are saying is you had no intention of anyone in your family – immediate or extended – stepping up to donate a kidney to Sonia.
“Far better to buy one and let the medical risk go to someone you don’t know.”
Answering, Ekweremadu stated it was “not true” that he promised to seek a donor by going via agents for the task.
Davies responded, “The pattern of communication reflects none of the type of human communication and contact you would expect if you and your family had believed that (the proposed donor) was a good Samaritan.”
Currently, Ekweremadu and his wife Beatrice are being prosecuted in the UK for allegedly luring a young man from Nigeria to have an organ removed for their ill daughter Sonia, who is also on trial. Sonia is the couple’s other daughter.
The politician was seized and detained by UK police last year after the young man complained about their claimed plans to harvest his organs.
