Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, will spend both the Christmas and New Year Day celebrations in prison after the Central Criminal Court a.k.a. Old Bailey declined his application for bail yesterday.
His application for 'dismissal of charges' of conspiracy to facilitate organ harvesting of David Nwamini’s kidney was also thrown out alongside that of his wife, Beatrice and daughter, Sonia.
With this rejection, the Ekweremadus and co-defendant, Dr Obinna Obeta will now stand trial beginning on January 31. By then, Ekweremadu would have spent a little over seven months in prison since his arrest at Heathrow Airport on June 23, 2022.
Ekweremadu and Obeta had on Monday attended their hearing via video links from the prisons, while Mrs. Ekweremadu was physically present.
Sonia was however absent in court, having been excused due to her medical condition and ongoing dialysis.
In the bail application, the defence team argued that Ekweremadu is a highly regarded well known public figure, as he had attended COP 26 in Uk and represented Nigeria on climate change discussions, but the prosecution hammered on his being a flight risk.
He told the court that Ekweremadu might take flight and not return to attend the trial if granted bail. However, his barrister said that he wouldn't do that nor leave his sick daughter and wife behind.
The defence team added that the Nigerian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, the Attorney General of the Federation and the Nigerian Bar Association provided character references for Ekweremadu and even asked the court to consider electronic tagging in order to monitor his movement.
His defence also informed the court that they had sureties and securities of nearly half a million pounds from 11 people, but the judge wasn’t perturbed by the argument.
But the prosecutor cited a letter written to them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on July 18, to back their grounds for opposing Ekweremadu's bail.
After hearing from both sides of the bench, the Judge said: “I’m entirely satisfied, there remains a flight risk especially as the trial is just over a month away. In view of that, bail application is refused".
The judge further said that Ekweremadu had three different passports on him when he was arrested.
This, he said suggested that he could take flight to either the United Arab Emirates or St Kitts and Nevis if granted bail, saying that the Senator doesn’t necessarily have to run away to Nigeria.
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