DAILY COURIER

 

‘Seun Ibukun-Oni, Abuja – The alleged kidney donor in the case involving former Deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, has asked a federal high court to set aside a ruling, which ordered the release of his biodata to the attorney-general of the federation (AGF), for transmission to the United Kindom.

 

DAILY COURIER had reported that Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, were arrested and arraigned before Uxbridge Magistrates Court in West London, for the alleged trafficking of a 15-year-old Ukpo into the United Kingdom for a concealed medical procedure to harvest and transplant his kidney to their ailing daughter.

 

Although the London police said Ukpo is 15, his passport and bank verification number (BVN) show he is 21.

 

Following the controversy over Ukpo’s age, Ekweremadu’s lawyer, Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), on June 27, urged Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, to order the release of official documents of Ukpo, domiciled with NIMC, Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and Stanbic-IBTC Bank for the purpose of effectively defending Ekweremadu in the UK.

 

In its ruling on July 6, the Federal High Court ordered the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to transmit the Certified True Copy (CTC) of Ukpo’s Biodata to the AGF for onward transmission to the United Kingdom (UK), where Senator Ike Ekweremadu is facing alleged organ harvesting charges.

 

But in an application, filed through his team of lawyers, led by Bamidele Igbinedion, Ukpo accused Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, of violating his fundamental human rights.

 

He noted that the former deputy senate president ought to have joined him and the AGF as parties in the suit.

 

He said the court erred when it granted Ekweremadu’s application without taking arguments from him.

 

The applicant further averred that the reliefs granted by the court violated his basic and constitutional right to privacy, which is protected by Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

 

The affidavits attached to the application read: “The attorney-general of the federation was also not made a party to the suit to enable the interest of the Federal Government to be represented, seeing that the effect of the order was to be utilised in a foreign country, namely the United Kingdom.

 

“The applicant became aware of the said ruling through social media reports on Facebook and the applicant was deeply aggrieved with the said order(s).”

 

According to Ukpo, the suit was conducted in breach of his fundamental rights to fair hearing and privacy.

 

He argued that the approval was not obtained for the transfer of his information to the Uxbridge Magistrate Court in the UK, accusing Ekweremadu and his wife of misleading the court.

 

“It is in the interest of justice to set aside the entire proceedings.

 

“Unless the matter is heard urgently, irreparable damage and serious mischief would have been done to the applicant as the 1st and 2nd applicants/respondents would have taken undue advantage to take the Applicant’s biodata and other personal information to their own use in Uxbridge Magistrate Court in the UK”, he said.

 

The judge has fixed September 13 to hear Ukpo’s application, which has Stanbic IBTC Bank, United Bank for Africa Plc and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc, as third, fourth and fifth respondents respectively.