Ekweremadu: Look well, Senator not an organ trafficker, defence team tells jury

The lyrics of award winning afrobeat star, Burma Boy, “Look, Look, Well, Well,” was used at the Old Bailey yesterday during the ongoing trial of former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu; his wife, Beatrice; their daughter, Sonia and Dr. Obinna Obeta. 

Sonia’s barrister, John Femi Ola, KC, made reference to it in his closing statement to the jury, telling them that the Crown Prosecution’s main witness, David Nwamini, on whom the “conspiracy to facilitate and arrange travel with the aim of exploitation” trial is built, is an “accomplished liar.” 

Nwamini, he told the jurors, is so “skilled and smart” in what he does that when he went to Staines Police Station on May 5, last year, to report that he had been trafficked to London by strangers who brought him from Lagos and that he was a 15-year old orphan, it was all lies.

Ola said: “David went to the Police station and he convinced a senior Police officer that he was 15 years.” 

Earlier in the trial, Nwamini had in his video link live testimony to the court, said during the meetings – including the lunch on February 22, last year, he had with Sonia, her mum, Obeta and others – he was always marginalised and that they were always talking behind him while he sat away.

Ola asked a prosecution detective to display the photo that Sonia and Nwamini took on the date. It showed them sitting together and he was smiling.

The barrister then told the jurors to “Look, look, well, well,” before then asking the photo to be taken off.

Prior to Ola addressing the jurors, the senators own barrister, Martin Hicks, KC, told them last Thursday that, “Ike Ekweremadu is not an organ trafficker,” noting further that “he did not exploit David Nwamini.”