Court favours Ekweremadu, orders NIMC, others to release Ukpo’s biodata

A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, to release the official bio-data of David Nwamini to a former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Beatrice, reported that Ekweremadu and wife had, in the application dated and filed on June 27 by Awomolo, sued NIMC and four others.

Others mentioned in the suit are the Comptroller General (C-G), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS); Stanbic-IBTC Bank; United Bank of Africa (UBA) and Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc as 2nd to 5th respondents respectively.

Justice Inyang Ekwo, Friday, also ruled that the National Identity Management Commission NIMC, and two commercial banks involved in the matter to release Nwamini’s details in their possession to the couple.

According to The Vanguard, the court order followed an originating summon filed by the detained couple through their counsel and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Adegboyega Awomolo.

Senator Ekweremadu and his wife are being detained by the United Kingdom authorities over charges of conspiring to bring a child to Britain for organ harvesting with Nwamini said to be the victim.

Following their arrest by the London Metropolitan Police, they were arraigned before Uxbridge Magistrate Court which ordered that they should be remanded in custody till July 7 while investigations continue into the allegations against them.

Although the Met police said Nwamini was 15, the NIS said it issued an international passport indicating his age as 21 after due process.

In a move to clear his clients of the allegations, Awomolo approached the court in Abuja, seeking an order directing the NIMC to produce the Certified True Copy of the details of David Ukpo Nwamini.

Awomolo had prayed to the court that Nwamini’s National Identification Number (NIN), which is in the possession of the NIMC, should be produced for the purpose of facilitating the criminal investigation and tendering same to establish his client’s innocence.

He asked that the Comptroller General of NIS be directed to provide his clients with the documents and application form which Nwamini presented to obtain his international passport, for the purpose of assisting the criminal investigation and tendering same before the Uxbridge Magistrate Court in the UK.

The SAN had also prayed the court for an order directing Stanbic IBTC Bank and UBA to provide the Certified True Copy of Nwamini’s mandate card and account opening package in their custody.