Senator Ike Ekweremmadu is at present languishing in a UK prison facility following his conviction and sentence to nine years and eight months of imprisonment for organ trafficking plot.
The 60-year-old Ike Ekweremmadu before his conviction and sentencing, was a political gladiator in the Southeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria’s federation. He was arguably the most prominent politician of the Igbo origin having served as deputy senate president for 12 years including four years under the All Progressive Congress (APC) even as a member of the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Prior to his travail in the U.K, Ekweremmadu was plotting to contest the Enugu state 2023 governorship election and was in pole position to clinching the PDP’s governorship election ticket especially as he was considered most prominent in the state by PDP’s national leadership.
Ike Ekweremmadu’s political emergence is traced to his serving as the Executive Chairman of Aninri Local Government Council under the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) in 1997. He would become a strong ally to the then governor of Enugu state, Chimaroeke Nnamani who sponsored his senatorial in 2003.
Ekweremmadu became a strong voice in the Senate and rose to the position of the deputy senate president in 2007; a position he occupied until 2019.
The beautiful political story of Ike Ekweremmadu was truncated in 2022 over his desperate sought to save his daughter’s life through the unconventional way.
How Ike Ekweremmadu Was Betrayed By His Heart
I knew about Ike Ekweremmadu by his solar power street light which ran through the nooks and crannies of the Enugu-west senatorial district which he represented in the Senate. It was his constituency project for the year 2012. Street light that did so much good for so many of the communities in the Enugu-west which the power holding companies were oblivious of their existence then. As a piece of evidence of his uninterrupted sitting in the Senate chamber since 2003, Ike Ekweremmadu provided these solar light that aided my studying at night as well as that of my mates who were preparing for their WAEC and NECO examinations.
For me then, Ekweremmadu was the government I knew and believed in. His name resonated with my heart.
But as they say, a man who is love with his stomach, trades his head for a morsel of bread
Ike Ekweremmadu, the man whose head stood tallest for decades in Igbo land, had his mind betrayed by his heart. Love is the worst threat to the human mind. A lawyer and legislature who knew the implications of his decision to save his ailing daughter through the unconventional way, had his knowledge of law and his experience as a senator sabotaged by the helplessness of what came out of his loins.
Not until the law catches you, you are a saint– Ekweremmadu chose to carryout this worthy but unlawful task in a foreign land where the law is supreme and frowns at those irrespective of their social placement, broke it. Ekweremmadu’s choice of the United Kingdom for the unholy business is also a fault to his heart– his love for his daughter and the man who was being tricked into donating his organ.
Had Ekweremmadu carried out this unholy business in Nigeria where the law is heavily vulnerable to influence and affluence, he would still be a saint.
However, he wanted the safety of the donor and the recipient. He wouldn’t want the donor nor the recipient to encounter complications during and after transplant as was likely in Nigeria.
Ekweremmadu, the man who gave me light to study with, was betrayed by his heart.