By Akinwande Soji-Ojo
A businessman and laptop engineer, Oyekan Tobi, has disclosed that David Ukpo Nwanmini, who was allegedly taken to the United Kingdom for organ harvesting by the former deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Beatrice, is not a 15-year-old boy.
Oyekan, who is also a postgraduate student at the Nigeria Institute of Journalism, Lagos, spoke to Vanguard after the passport of the alleged 15-year-old boy surfaced online.
According to him, the boy on the passport is from Ebonyi State and assists his elder brother, Linus, also known as Mile 2, in the market with customers.
“His elder brother deals in phone accessories, it is false to say the boy is 15 years old because a boy of 15 years won’t have that energy to be dragging customers in the market with other boys. He’s not a boy you can slap on the way and walk away easily. Hence, he should be in his 20s,” he said.
When asked when last he saw David at Ikotun market, Oyekan said it has been a while, adding that they haven’t been seeing him with his two brothers at the market of late.
Oyekan said David and his brothers sell phone accessories with wheelbarrows at Ikotun market.
“Their elder brother, Linus, was once involved in the selling of accessories with wheelbarrows, but after a while, he stopped and upgraded to using a shop to sell these accessories. He then brought his three brothers, and David is one of them, to take over the wheelbarrow business of selling phone accessories,” he said.
The London Metropolitan Police had on Thursday announced that Ekweremadu and his wife were charged to court for allegedly bringing an homeless child with the name David Ukpo Nwanmini to UK for organ harvesting.
The police added that the investigation was launched after detectives were alerted to potential offences under modern slavery legislation in May 2022.
An investigation by the Metropolitan Police’s Specialist Crime Team took place after detectives were alerted to potential modern-day slavery offenses. Organ harvesting involves removing parts of the body, often for commercial gain and against the will of the victim.
Ekweremadu, who was recently made a visiting professor at the University of Lincoln, served three terms as deputy president of the senate, from 2007 to 2019. .
