By Martin Cole-
The younger brother of David Ukpo Nwanmini, an alleged victim of organ trafficking involving Senator Ike Ekwerrmadu and his wife in the United Kingdom, Jonathan Ukpo Nwanmini, yesterday, claims his sibling is 25 years old, not 15, it has been reported.
Ekwerrmadu was charged with bringing a young child to the Uk for organ harvesting.
The brother, who claimed to be the 22 years old younger brother of the victim, told a Nigerian news outlet that the victim is his elder brother, and believed he was in the Uk for the purposes of schooling.
The motive for claiming to be 15 is unclear, but if true, could be because the plan had been to put him in free secondary school education in the Uk , since the homeless youngster would have had no academic qualifications or experience to pursue any higher education in Britain.
There is also the possibility that the boy is actually 15, and his apparent younger brother is not telling the truth.
The boy said: ”David is my elder brother because we are both of the same father with different mothers and we hail from Ebonyi State. I will be 22 years old by next month and David is 25 years old. I am aware that he travelled because he told me. He did not disclose the country he was travelling to. He simply told me he was going to school abroad.
“After some months of not hearing from him, I got his number from his girlfriend and called him. I asked about his studies and work.
He said it was fine but that he was not working yet as he needed to go to school first before he could be given a working paper. I told him about our dad who was not feeling fine.
This was the conversation we had this month since January when he travelled. He was staying with us here in Ikotun before he left. We both sell phone accessories. We spoke last week. We even spoke again this week.”
The arrest of Ekweredolou has shocked his country of Nigeria, where he is a high public figure, having once been the deputy president of the senate. He is also a principal in a law firm bearing his name.
,Meanwhile, Lincoln University announced the suspension of Ekweremadu following his arrest for human trafficking for organ harvesting in the UK.
The institution appointed Ekweremadu as a visiting professor of Corporate and International Linkages just over a week ago.
Lincoln University said it will not comment further on the matter until the conclusion of UK police investigation on the former Nigerian deputy Senate President and his wife Beatrice.
“Visiting professors are often, as is in this case, non-resident at the university, unpaid and advisory,” a Lincoln University spokesperson said.
“We are deeply concerned about the nature of these allegations, but as this is an active police investigation, we cannot comment further at this stage.
“Whilst this matter is subject to investigation, this person will not be undertaking any duties as visiting professor at Lincoln.”
Ekweremadu, a senator representing Enugu West Senatorial District, was arrested by UK Metropolitan Police on Tuesday with his wife Beatrice for conspiracy to harvest the organs of a minor.
The couple and his wife were arraigned at the Uxbridge Magistrate Court in London where the prosecutor disclosed the minor is a 15-year-old boy named Ukpo Nwamini David.
Reports said Ekweremadu and his wife facilitated David’s entry into the UK to transplant his kidney into their daughter who is suffering from kidney failure.
The prosecutor said David was not aware that he was in the United Kingdom to donate a kidney until he went for a hospital appointment with the Ekweremadus.
A doctor at the Royal Free Hospital in Camden, London, was concerned that David might not be aware he was a kidney donor. The doctor also doubted that the minor was 41 as his passport claimed.