By Deborah Onyofufeke
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, ordered the National Identification Management Commission, NIMC, to immediately make available, the bio-data of David Ukpo, to the Attorney-General of the federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami SAN
David Ukpo had accused the former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, of sponsoring his trip to the U.K for the sole aim of harvesting his kidney to save their daughter who is in need of one
Justice Inyang Ekwo in a ruling said Ukpo’s bio-data should be released to the AGF to be transmitted to the court in the United Kingdom where the trial of Ekweremadu and his wife is being heard
Meanwhile, the court on July 1, ordered NIMC to make available to Ekweremadu’s team of lawyers, the Certified True Copy, CTC, of Ukpo’s bio-data.
During today’s proceedings, NIMC, through its lawyer, Mr Muazu Mohammed, notified the court that it could not comply with the order.
The Commission contended that it was not served with hearing notice before the said order was issued against it.
Though NIMC initially asked for the order to be set-aside, it later amended its motion and requested that it should rather be directed to submit Ukpo’s bio-data to the AGF instead of to Ekweremadu’s lawyers.
The request was not opposed by Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, who represented Ekweremadu and his wife.
Consequently, Justice Ekwo granted the application as prayed.
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It will be recalled that the London Metropolitan Police had arrested and charged Ekweremadu and his wife to court for allegedly bringing a child (Ukpo) to the United Kingdom for organ harvesting.
Though the UK police alleged that Ukpo was 15 years old, however, personal details on both his International Passport and Bank Verification Number, BVN, showed that he is 21 years
This led the Ekweremadu’s, who are still in detention in UK, through their lawyers, to approach the court in Nigeria, praying it to order NIMC to supply them with CTC of Ukpo’s biodata in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/984/2022, were the Comptroller General of the NIS, Stanbic-IBTC Bank, United Bank of Africa, and Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc were mentioned as defendants in the suit
