A Federal High Court in Enugu has postponed the hearing on a motion to expel Senator Ike Ekweremadu, the former vice president of the Senate, until November 9, 2022.
The former deputy Senate President and his wife Beatrice are accused of conspiring to arrange or enable another person’s travel for the purpose of exploitation, specifically organ harvesting.
The pair was detained by the London Metropolitan Police in June, and they appeared in court in July.
The UK Court trial timetable indicated that the senator’s trial would commence on May 28, 2023, while Ekweremadu’s wife was granted bail on July 22.
Ekweremadu was sued under case number FHC/EN/CS/171/22 by Chief Ogochukwu Onyema against Senator Ahmed Lawan, the Senate, Ekweremadu, INEC, and the PDP. The applicant wanted Ekweremadu’s Senate seat declared empty and him declared the next in line to fill it.
Onyema, who ran against Ekweremadu in the PDP Senate primary in 2018, brought a request to amend the original summons to the hearing of the case on Wednesday in Enugu.
PulseNets discovered that the primary election’s runner-up, whom the plaintiff had previously said was dead, was the subject of the amendment. He rushed to the court, however, saying that the plaintiff was mistaken in thinking he had passed away.
However, the court was unable to consider the application because only Ekweremadu’s attorney, Ogochukwu Onyekwuluje, was present out of the seven respondents.
Justice Umar Mohammed Garba, the presiding court, therefore decided to postpone the case until November 9 in order to give everyone time to be served as well as to consider a motion for regularisation.
Speaking to reporters, Onyema claimed that his plan to remove Ekweremadu from the Senate was not an attempt to persecute the man but rather to fulfil his desire to serve as the senator representing his people.
“I don’t want to delve into that”, Onyema remarked in response to the discovery that the guy who finished second in the 2018 primaries that elected Ekweremadu was not deceased as claimed in his affidavit.
