JUST IN: Nigerian Senator And Wife In Organ-Trafficking Plot Jailed – How Is The Situation In Ghana?7 min read

His wife, Beatrice Ekweremadu was jailed for four years and six months due to her more limited involvement.

The couple were found guilty in March for trafficking a man to Britain to harvest one of his kidneys for their 25-year-old daughter Sonia, .

The pair and and Dr Obinna Obeta, 50, were convicted previously of conspiring to exploit the man for his kidney. Dr Obeta was sentenced to 10 years after the judge found he had targeted the potential donor who was young, poor and vulnerable.

The 60-year-old former deputy president of the Nigerian senate, his wife; 56, and the said doctor; Dr. Obinna Obeta; 51, are said to have conspired to facilitate the travel of a 21-year-old Lagos street trader to London, with the intent of exploiting him for his kidney.

The 3, through this, sought to get the young man whose name is withheld for legal reasons, to become a donor for the senator’s daughter who was sick, a report by UK’s portal; theguardian.com said.

The senator’s daughter; Sonia Ekweremadu reportedly had a kidney disease which forced her to drop out of Newcastle University where she was pursuing a master’s degree in film.

Breaking down the details of the incident, Prosecutor, Hugh Davies KC told the court that in February 2022, the man was sent to the Royal Free Hospital in London where he was falsely presented to a private renal unit as a cousin of Sonia (the Senator’s daughter) so that they could perform an 80,000 Euro transplant.

The medical secretary at the hospital was then paid to act as an Igbo translator between the parties (the man and the doctors) to help convince them that he was a selfless donor.

The prosecutor further told the court that Ekweremadu, his wife and the doctor, treated the said man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward” and then entered an “emotionally cold commercial transaction” with him.

Prosecutor Davies further noted that the Senator who owns several properties and had a staff of 80, by this act, “agreed to reward someone for a kidney for his daughter – somebody in circumstances of poverty and from whom he distanced himself and made no inquiries, and with whom, for his own political protection, he wanted no direct contact”.

Davies added: “What he agreed to do was not simply expedient in the clinical interests of his daughter, Sonia, it was exploitation, it was criminal. It is no defence to say he acted out of love for his daughter.

Her clinical needs cannot come at the expense of the exploitation of somebody in poverty.”

His actions were against Nigeria’s laws against organ trafficking which he (Ekweremadu) helped draw up, the prosecutor maintained, adding that it sowed “entitlement, dishonesty, and hypocrisy,” the prosecutor told the jury.

After a six-week trial at the Old Bailey, on Thursday, March 23, the jury found them guilty of conspiring to bring the 21-year-old Lagos street trader to London for exploitation and for defying modern slavery legislation.

His daughter however was declared not guilty.

So not to remind family and love ones of her death, we bring you the full write-up on how a Deputy Minister of Finance under President Agyekum Kufour of Ghana, Grace Coleman, lost her job – and subsequent trauma that lead to her demise in 2009.

Read on…..

The harrowing story of how Grace Coleman lost her job under Prez Kufuor

Grace Coleman served as Deputy Minister of Finance under John Kufuor

Mon, 13 Sep 2021Source: www.ghanaweb.com

• Grace Coleman served as Deputy Minister under John Kufuor

• She died in 2009 from stress-related illnesses

• Her grandson shared details around what killed her

In the last 24 hours, the story of how a certain Margaret Owusuwaa, believed to be a close relative of a woman who was buried recently, and the events that culminated to the latter’s death has been trending on Twitter.

In the accounts shared by Axel @Mr_Blavo along with photo snippets from a brochure, the name of a former Deputy Minister of Finance under the John Agyekum Kufuor administration, Grace Coleman, pops up, detailing what is also believed to be the circumstances that led to her losing her job, as well as how she died.

The accounts below are those captured in Barbara Coleman’s funeral brochure, under her biography. It also shares some details on how her mother, Grace Coleman, suffered pain before her death.

“When Barbara gave birth to her second child, Michael, her parents decided to look for someone to assist her in taking care of her young children. Her mother’s cousin, Margaret Owusuwaa (aka Ama), was living with her parents in Accra overheard the conversation and requested to take the offer. Her parents reluctantly agreed but later sent Ama to assist Barbara for six months as her visa stipulated.

“A few days to the expiry of her visa, Ama fled Barbara’s family home and reported to the US immigration that Barbara and her late mother [Grace Coleman] has forcefully sent her to the US as a slave to serve Barbara. Barbara was immediately arrested and committed to stand trial. She and her husband Kenneth were accused of conspiring to smuggle Ama Owusuwaa from Ghana to the US to work as an unpaid domestic servant and nanny to their children,” a portion of the biography of Barbara read.

The accounts explained that, following this ordeal, Grace Coleman, who was at the time an appointee of the former president, John Agyekum Kufuor, lost her job, leading to what will become the beginning of stress-related incidences that will kill her later in 2009.

“Grace Coleman, her late mother, was charged for conspiracy to send Ama to America under false pretenses and she was to be extradited to stand trial in the US court. This episode led to Hon. Grace Coleman losing her job as Deputy Minister of Finance in the [New] Patriotic Party (NPP) regime under President J. A. Kufuor in 2003,” it read.

In further accounts on how the Coleman family suffered lies at the hands of Ama, the biography narrated the circumstances under which the court hearing was done, as well as all the efforts they made to exonerate Barbara, her husband and Grace.

“The Coleman family sent seven witnesses from Ghana to the US court to testify that Ama was indeed a family member and she voluntarily offered to help her niece, Barbara, for six months. In court, Ama told all kinds of lies.

“Barbara was convicted of forced labour, harbouring an illegal alien for financial gain and hiding the passport of Ama Owusuwaa. In the end, she was sentenced to prison for five years and three months. Kenny was also convicted to conspiracy and harbouring an illegal alien for financial gain and sentenced to six months of home detention and three years probation. Ama Owusuwaa has since been rewarded with residency permit,” the biography read.

Other details of how the family had to deal with embarrassment are captured in the narration below.

“In prison, Barbara encountered many problems. She developed all sorts of ailments including diabetes, high blood pressure and a recurrent brain tumor. She had to undergo two craniotomies (a form of open head surgery) to remove the brain tumor.

“She served all the sixty-three months in prison and was deported to Ghana thereafter in 2008. These events are what eventually caused the death of her mother, Grace Coleman in 2009. Her husband, Kenny, also passed on in 2018,” the biography said.

We buried an auntie of mine on Friday and I’m just glad her suffering is finally over. Her life played out like the most unfortunate kumawood movie.

This life can be so crazy pic.twitter.com/0rYsxEdUA4

— Axel (@Mr_Blavo) September 12, 2021

The tweep, who claims to be a grandson of Grace Coleman, provided updates on what happened to this Ama Owusuwaa and her family thereafter.

“To make matters worse Ama Owusua told US officials that since my grand auntie was a minister in the then NPP government, her husband and kids were in danger of persecution. Lawyers came to Ghana and took her husband and kids to the US for “political asylum.”

“But Ama and her family got their karma. She and her husband are now both blind and she had a stroke that has left her paralyzed and bedridden in the states. At least there’s something like cosmic justice,” he wrote.