The Central District Court, London yesterday denied the Nigerian lawmaker and former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu bail in his pre-trial verdict, alleging that he may flee the country if granted bail. The Nigerian lawmaker and his wife Beatrice landed in the London police net on 23rd June and both were charged on criminal allegations of trafficking and organ harvesting as against the modern slavery Act 2015. Counsel to Ekwremadu, filed for bail application intimating the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and the Attorney General of the Federal had written to the court that the lawmaker was not a flight risk.
The lawyer further obliged that a guarantor is produced should the Nigerian lawmaker jump his bail condition as even the Nigerian High Commission also intervened by suggesting he be bugged in case the court was not satisfied to monitor his movement.
His lawyer argued that his client has proven to be a caring and responsible statesman, a father that would not want to risk his guarantor by escaping from London to leave behind his wife and sick daughter.
He told the court that his client has produced sureties and securities of nearly half a million-pound sterling from 11 persons to meet the client's bail conditions.
However, the court after hearing all the arguments from the lawyer slammed the plea saying Ekweremade paused a flight risk thereby denying his bail application, stressing that the bail will not make much difference as the trial is just a month away.
Just before yesterday’s hearing, the Old Bailey had earlier agreed that arguments in Ekweremadu’s case will be heard on the 16th or 19th of December 2022 before the commencement of the trial in January.
