Senator aware of Japa scam

Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu told the ongoing Old Bailey “conspiracy” trial involving him, Beatrice, his wife, Sonia, their daughter, and Dr. Obinna Obeta, that when he asked his younger brother, Diwe- a.k.a. Dr Isaac- to make it clear to his former classmate that there was not going to be a case of rewarding the kidney donor Obeta had sourced for Sonia, Diwe said Obeta answered in the affirmative.

Led in evidence by his barrister, Martin Hicks, KC, on Monday, the senator was asked what was discussed when he asked Dr Isaac to see him in the evening of November 2nd, in 2021. Ekweremadu told the court, “l wanted to find out how Dr Obeta identified the donor “ Obeta, who himself had a kidney transplant at the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead on July 17, 2021, was said to have simply told Diwe that “it was his own donor- Friday Ogbuchi- that helped him to get “ David Nwamini, and that the latter was “willing to donate his” own kidney as well.

Earlier in the trial, the Crown had disclosed that Obeta actually rewarded Ogbuchi and got him to stay in the United Kingdom after donating his kidney. The prosecution said he’s working illegally and that it was the same deal that Obeta had on the table for Nwamini. That wasn’t known to the Ekweremadus until in the course of the trial.

Continuing his testimony, the Senator said further that when he asked his brother if he tried finding out more about the then unknown donor, Nwamini, Diwe replied and said what his fellow doctor friend and former classmate told him was that “he lives in Lagos and is a friend of Dr Obeta’s donor.”

Ekweremadu told the jury of seven women and five men, “l said l hope he made it clear to him that there’s no reward?” Obeta, who finished his own testimony last week and was listening in the dock, was said to have told Diwe that he did and that “in his own case, there was no reward.”

The senator admitted that based on those assurances, he told Diwe: ”we’re moving in the right direction.”

Despite that, “l also said we need to be careful. He then told the court that there’s “an ongoing scam-Japa- that some young people use as opportunity to leave the country.” The senator said to the judge “it’s a Yoruba word, Japa,” when the latter sought clarification on what he had just mentioned in his evidence.

(The Guardian)

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