Ekwremandu’s UK case: It is not just about donor’s age, By Bukola Hassan

I have no idea why Nigerians think this case is about the age of the potential donor. We need to understand that the UK courts are not interested in whether the donor is a minor or is an adult.

The case is about ‘organ harvesting’. Aka trying to purchase a kidney or body part from a donor.

That is against UK law. The UK totally frowns at any financial or other material consideration offered to, or used to coerce another to donate a body part. Even IF it is an agreed transaction between two adults.

It is illegal!

Today, the Magistrate in this case has forwarded the case to the Old Bailey (a Crown court). IF the Ekeremadus are found guilty by a jury, they face the very likely possibility of jail time.

The charges against them are serious criminal charges.

It is significant that despite the court accepting that the proposed donor is 21 and not 15, and he lied about his age, the Magistrate has ruled that both Ekeremadus should continue to be held without bail. Both are behind bars while they wait for the next hearing in August.

Organ harvesting is a serious offence.

If the Crown court does not dismiss the case, the Ekwremandu lawyer will have to persuade a jury of 12 ordinary people, that his mega rich clients did not offer any money or other financial consideration to the potential donor for the kidney, and the potential donor was doing it for free out of the total kindness of his heart.

We all know that is not what happened. So good luck to them trying to convince a UK jury that a stranger just volunteered to give the Ekweremadus his kidney for free.

To those who might accuse me of not feeling sorry for the young girl who needs a kidney. And say a parent will do anything etc etc

Everybody feels very sorry for his daughter. I feel very sorry for his daughter. God forbid one is ever in that situation.

But should we now begin to see human beings as body parts that can be bought and sold? There is a reason the law exists banning the sale of body parts. It is to prevent the rich exploiting the poor and using the poor as ‘spare parts’.

Do the Ekeremadus not have family members, cousins, siblings etc who might be a potential match? So this could have been a family donation.

Out of the hundreds of family members, is it not almost likely a match could have been found?

Buuuuutuu, it seems they could not find anyone in the family to donate freely – maybe those ones know there are slight risks associated with living with just one kidney.

So they found a poor guy who would not care about tomorrow

Ekwremandu is lawyer, a SAN. It is highly unlikely he would not know the position of UK law on offering any financial or material consideration for a kidney.

However IF the allegations are true, it appears that with the typical Nigerian rich people arrogance, the Ekweremadus thought the law does not apply to them.

It is right that the UK authorities seem to be going ahead with this case. Nigerian billionaires and politicians must know there are consequences for illegal actions.

Hassan writes from London