Ekweremadu says EFCC wrote to London court asking them to deny him bail

FORMER deputy senate president Senator Ike Ekweremadu has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of being responsible for his recent travails that have led to his detention in the UK on modern day slavery charges.

In June, Senator Ekweremadu and his wife Beatrice were arrested by London's Metropolitan Police on suspicion of child trafficking and planned organ harvesting. They were charged before Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court with conspiracy to arrange/facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting.

Both of them were denied bail at the time and were remanded in custody until the case were heard again on July 26 at the Westminster Magistrates Court, when Beatrice was released but her husband was denied bail. In the first such case of its kind involving Nigerians, the Ekweremadus were accused of conspiring to traffic a homeless man into the UK to harvest his kidney for their daughter.

In a recent suit challenging his arrest filed at the federal high court in Lagos, Senator Ekweremadu said that the EFCC wrote a letter to the London court that made them refuse him bail. These allegations were contained in an application he filed before a Nigerian court seeking an order to set aside interim order granted in favour of the federal government's forfeiture of 40 of his properties in and outside the country.

Senator Ekweremadu claimed that the forfeiture order was granted in error because the EFCC suppressed information and facts in respect of the properties. He alleged that the EFCC fraudulently obtained the forfeiture order for the government by concealing information that the investigation on the 40 properties started as far back as 2008.

He also added that the EFCC was fully aware that he was in detention in London when the application for forfeiture of the properties was filed and argued. Senator Ekweremadu said that the EFCC deliberately refused to disclose to the court that he was detained in London and would not be able to counter the forfeiture request.

Senator, Ekweremadu therefore prayed the court to set aside the forfeiture order and stay proceedings in the matter until he resolves his ordeal before the London court. However, Silvanus Tahir , the counsel to the EFCC, denied that his client was behind Senator Ekweremadu’s ordeal.

He, however, admitted that EFCC wrote the London court based on a special request, adding that it was a normal routine for anti-graft agencies to exchange information that would be of help to one another. Mr Tahir did not oppose the request for a stay of proceedings until Senator Ekweremadu fully resolved his matter before the London court but he vehemently opposed the request for the setting aside of the forfeiture order.

After taking arguments from both parties, Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo fixed January 11 next year for ruling on the matter. On November 4, the court ordered the interim forfeiture of 40 landed properties linked to Senator Ekweremadu in some parts of the country and outside Nigeria.