The fall from grace of former Nigerian Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu is now complete after he was sentenced by a British court to nine years in prison for illegal organ trafficking plot.

The court also sentenced his wife, Beatrice, to four years six months while the medical doctor who acted as the ‘middleman’ in the whole sordid episode, Dr. Obinna Obeta received 10 years and a suspension of his medical license.

Ekweremadu, his wife and Obeta were found guilty last month by the British court for criminally conspiring to bring a 21-year-old Lagos cellphone street vendor to London to donate organs to Ekweremadu’s daughter, Sonia who needed kidney transplant to stay alive.

The London court heard how the Ekweremadus’ presented the street vendor as a cousin of Sonia’s in a bid to convince the doctors with the Royal Free Hospital in London to allow the nearly $100,000 operation to proceed.

The street vendor was said to have been offered up to $10,000 to become a donor after Sonia was forced to abandon her Master’s degree in film program at Newcastle University following a kidney failure.

The prosecutor, Hugh Davies KC told the court that the Ekweremadus and Obeta had treated the man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward”.

During a televised sentence hearing, Mr Justice Johnson recognised Ike Ekweremadu’s “substantial fall from grace”.

Lynette Woodrow, deputy chief crown prosecutor and national modern slavery lead at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said it had been “our first conviction for trafficking for the purposes of organ removal in England and Wales”.

She said it highlighted an important legal principle which made it irrelevant whether the trafficking victim knew he was coming to the UK to provide a kidney.

“With all trafficking offences,” Ms Woodrow said, “the consent of the person trafficked is no defense. The law is clear; you cannot consent to your own exploitation.”

 
Afrocentrik Television, a local television station featuring news and events about Africans in the diaspora, will host its first annual Eva Awards on Sunday, October 9, 2022.

The venue for the event is the Stafford Civic Center, in Houston, TX. Event starts at 5:00 PM.

According to Wole Van Olasoji, President and CEO of Afrocentrik Television, the event is aimed at highlighting the progress and achievement of Africans in the diaspora and to promote excellence in the community.

“This is our first award, and the goal is to promote excellence, values, and achievements of our community members. We hope to encourage the community by presenting this award,” he said.

African business owners in Houston and other Texas cities are expected at the award show. Entertainers expected to attend include D’Lyte, Seyi Alesh, Demola the Violinist, and Helen Paul.

According to a release from Afrocentrik Television, the Afrocentrik award show will celebrate excellence, values, and achievements and honor the outstanding contributions of the African Diaspora in the Greater Houston Metro Area.

All proceeds will be donated to an outstanding charitable organization in the Houston community.

Awards will be handed out to individuals and companies in various categories including healthcare, sports, law firm, restaurant, media, real estate, and more.

There is a cost to attend the award. Complete information is on Afrocentrik Television’s website.

In just a few short days, Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi, a Nigerian advocate against sexual violence, went from being highly elated by her trip to London, England to facing the worst day of her life.

The 29-year old Nigerian was in London last month to attend the Commonwealth Day Service where was the official flag bearer.

She met celebrities and world leaders including HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales. A day after her return from England, Osowobi said she knew something was terribly wrong.

The symptoms began simply: fatigue, headache, slight dizziness, loss of sense of smell, and mild cough, but she said she had read enough about coronavirus to know that it was time to get tested.

A few days later, her test came back positive and Osowobi was taken to a hospital specially set up for COVID-19 patients in Lagos.

She was isolated in a small ward until last week when she was discharged following her recovery from COVID-19.

Osowobi, who runs the Stand to End Rape Initiative, a group advocating against sexual violence in Nigeria, spoke with the media this week and relayed her experience during her COVID-19 infection.

She said it feels great to have survived coronavirus but it’s not an experience she would wish on any one else.

“It feels great to have survived COVID-19. If you see the data of people who have passed away due to the virus, they are alarming,” Owosobi said.

“I’m really grateful to be alive but also grateful for the experience as I am able to share with people that COVID-19 is not a hoax like many people may believe in Nigeria.”

On the symptoms that led her to seek testing, she said she had high fever, loss of appetite and most other symptoms associated with COVID-19.

“I had high fever, was coughing heavily and had loss of appetite. I had a lot of symptoms on the COVID-19 list so I knew I had to get tested just to be sure of what the situation was because I was feeling really sick and wasn’t getting better.

“The virus kicked my system. It made me very weak. I was dizzy every second, I was throwing up. I lost my sense of taste but my sense of smell heightened so I could smell everything like water, food, even soaps.

“Everything was just disgusting to me. It was a very tough period, a very tough moment for me but I am happy I beat it.

“It was an experience I don’t wish anyone to have,” she added.

Osowobi said while she was battling the infection, she thought she was going to die.

“The first thing that came to my mind was, ‘Am I going to die?’ I feared that am I going to be one of the people to be counted as dead. I was asking myself, ‘Is Nigeria ready to handle the situation? Is Lagos state capable to handle the situation as of now?’

“I was just very scared.”

On her experience with the doctors and nurses at the Nigerian coronavirus treatment center, she said the experience was generally positive but the medications she was given made her miserable.
“It was good. I had a good experience considering the circumstance.

“Despite a very shaky start, we were able to build a relationship as things went by. I was also able to see how much they were trying their best to provide top-notch service to everyone at the center, including myself. I had one doctor’s number, so I would text him to tell him of my symptoms or call him if I was feeling a certain way.

“When I was still vomiting, I would text him to say, ‘Help me, I don’t want to die.’ Some of the nurses would come in and encourage me, say a word of prayer with me.

“I was given a couple of medications to handle COVID-19 and also to handle the side effects of the medications. There was even a time the medication for my vomiting wasn’t working, so I had to be given injections to suppress the desire to vomit.

“I had to make a conscious decision not to vomit because I needed to retain the medicine inside my system. But the virus was throwing everything out. It was a battle I won at the end.

“I re-examined my survival chances when I started getting better by the day. The vomiting had stopped, the stooling had stopped, the dizziness was gradually getting less effective – so it was an indication I was getting well.

“I was really excited. It renewed my hope of surviving this. They were checking my temperature in the morning, afternoon and at night – and it was getting better. My blood pressure was getting better. My pulse was getting better. I got my sense of taste back. So, I began to re-evaluate my chances of survival that yes, I could beat this.”

She advised Nigerians everywhere to follow guidelines and instructions like social distancing, washing of hands, and more.

“Please wash your hands, sanitize and, importantly, self-isolate.

“I can tell you from a first-account experience that you should self-isolate; just stay at home as much as possible, practice social distancing so that you are not infecting other people should you have the virus and not even know it.

“All the social gatherings are not really important. What’s important is your health and your body’s capacity to fight any infection or virus. For your body to fight the virus, you also need to equip it with the right diet and the right medication.

“I hope to keep advocating for the end of stigmatization because I’ve realized there is still a sort of stigma attached to the issue.

“So I hope to use my platform to help to demystify myths around COVID-19 and those who test positive so that we can collectively as a global space support those who are fighting to live.