Beatrice Madueke granted bail in ongoing organ harvesting case but Ike remanded in custody

BEATRICE Madueke has been granted bail by  the Uxbridge Magistrate Court  in the UK in the ongoing criminal case involving her and her husband the former deputy senate president Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

Late last month, 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 have been remanded in custody ever since until this morning 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.

Judge Richard Mark, the Common Serjeant of London, who presided over today's hearing ruled : “The position is that I have granted bail to Beatrice subject to some fairly stringent conditions but I have refused bail to Ike."

They have been charged by the Metropolitan Police with conspiracy to engage in the organ harvesting of one David Ukpo Nwamini. Nigeria's federal government has hired a team of crack lawyers to defend the former deputy senate president and a delegation of senators has visited him in London.

Beatrice was charged with arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation, between August 1 last year and May 5, under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Her husband, Ike Ekweremadu, was charged with conspiracy to arrange or facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting.