The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) Sunday confirmed the age of the alleged victim of organ harvesting, David Nwamini, as 21, a position that contradicted the claims of the United Kingdom prosecutors.
NIS Comptroller General Isah Idris made the declaration during a zoom briefing with journalists.
He said Nwanini applied for his international passport which was issued after thorough checks by the issuing agency.
The NIS boss also said the documents provided by Nwamini from the National Population Commission (NPC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) gave his date of birth as October 12, 2000.
Idris further stated that Nwanini was captured for the international passport November 2, 2021, at the Gwagwalada office of the agency.
The London Metropolitan Police had Thursday charged former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and wife Beatrice Ekweremadu for allegedly trafficking Nwanini with the aim of harvesting his kidney.
On the same day, the Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court in London denied the couple bail.
Blueprint reported that the prosecutors said the Ekweremadus were being charged for bringing a 15-year-old boy from Nigeria to the UK under the pretext he was to be given a better life in the UK as against alleged plan to harvest his organ.
The prosecutors reportedly informed the court that Ekweremadu procured a passport for the boy and claimed he was 21 years old but the prosecutors discovered that he was 15 years old.
However, it came to the open when pictures of Nwamini’s international passport later emerged on social media stipulating his age was 21, as against 15 presented to by the prosecutors in London in court.
The Ekweremadus were believed to have facilitated Nwamini’s trip after he agreed to donate a kidney to their sick daughter.
According to Idris, neither the Met Police who charged the senator to court nor the senator himself contacted the NIS since the case went public.
The duo of the lawmaker and the wife by denied bail while the case comes up July 7 in the UK.