Ekweremadu: Alleged victim demands reversal of order for release of bio-data

David Ukpo, the victim of the alleged organ harvesting scandal involving Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, on Tuesday, August 30, 2022, asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to set aside its July 1 order for the release of his bio-data for use in a London court in Ekweremadu’s trial.

What happened: Ukpo, while faulting proceedings of the court that led to the issuance of the order, claimed that his fundamental rights to a fair hearing and personal privacy had been grossly breached.

His grouse was that neither he nor the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, as Chief Law Officer of the Federation, was made a party in the suit.

What David Ukpo is requesting for: In a motion on notice he just filed through his lawyer, Mr Bamidele Igbinedion, Ukpo prayed Justice Inyang Eden Ekwo to reverse the order permitting the release of his bio-data to Ekweremadu and his wife for their defense before Uxbridge Magistrate Court in London.

Ukpo claims his fundamental rights are breached: Defendants in the motion bothering on the alleged breach of fundamental rights are National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, Comptroller General, Nigeria Immigration Service, Stanbic IBTC Bank, United Bank for Africa, UBA, and Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System.

The applicant is praying the court to restrain the defendants, their agents, privies, staff, and workers from releasing any information concerning him to Ekweremadu and his wife for their defense in the London court.

The genesis of the matter: On 23 June 2022, Ekweremadu was charged alongside his wife in UK Magistrate’s Court with conspiring to arrange the travel of an alleged 21 year-old from Lagos into the UK in order to harvest organs