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Nigerian senator tells UK organ harvesting trial of scam fears

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Nigeria’s former deputy senate president on trial in London for allegedly plotting to harvest a street trader’s kidney for his sick daughter told the court on Tuesday he feared he was being “scammed”.

Ike Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, daughter Sonia, 25, and a doctor, Obinna Obeta, 50, are accused of conspiring to exploit the man for his body part.

Lawyers for the four previously told the trial at London’s central criminal court, also known as the Old Bailey, the alleged victim was acting “altruistically”.

The kidney was allegedly intended for Sonia, who remains on dialysis with a renal condition, in return for up to £7,000 ($8,430) and the promise of a new life in Britain for the 21-year-old trader.

Giving evidence in his defence, Ike Ekweremadu was asked about an invoice for £8,000 he received via his brother Diwe from a consultant doctor.

Defence lawyer Martin Hicks asked: “Why not at this stage say we are being scammed Dr Obeta, end of, stop?”

“My daughter’s life was on the line so if we stop we will be putting my daughter’s life in danger. So we just keep moving,” Ekweremadu replied.

“Everybody was obviously taking advantage of my daughter’s ill health,” he added.

Ike Ekweremadu is a senator for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party for Enugu state in southeast Nigeria. He has been held in custody in the UK since his arrest. His wife and daughter are on conditional bail.

In Britain, it is legal to donate a kidney, but not for reward. Prosecutors say regardless of whether the Lagos street trader gave his consent, a crime was committed by the wealthy Nigerians.

The accuser — who cannot be named — is said to have gone to UK police after finally refusing to consent to the procedure, following preliminary tests at a north London hospital in February 2022.

– ‘Scary’ condition –

A consultant doctor at the London hospital said the young man had “limited understanding” of why he was there and was “visibly relieved” on being told the transplant would not go ahead, prosecutor Hugh Davies said.

Ike Ekweremadu told the court on Monday Sonia was doing a masters degree at Newcastle University when she started experiencing “swollen limbs” in December 2019.

She was later diagnosed with a “kidney issue”, which caused her “distress”, and withdrew from her studies after she “collapsed” in class.

Ekweremadu said his daughter’s deteriorating condition was “scary”, adding: “Medicines she was getting (were) not essentially working, so her situation was getting worse.”

The prosecutor earlier said the young man had been coached to give false answers to doctors at the British hospital, and Sonia was “singing from the same hymn sheet” to create a fake family history linking the pair as cousins.

The Ekweremadus and the doctor are accused of conspiracy to arrange the travel of another person with a view to exploitation, under UK legislation on modern slavery.

Obeta allegedly managed the process in Nigeria, having himself undergone a kidney transplant in Britain with an organ donated by a “cousin” in 2021, the court was previously told.

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Mom Who Challenged Amanda Gorman Poem Makes a Bizarre Apology

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The lone Florida parent who successfully campaigned to restrict elementary students’ access to Amanda Gorman’s inauguration poem issued a bizarre apology Wednesday for her antisemitic Facebook posts. As The Daily Beast reported Thursday, the woman, Daily Salinas, posted a summary of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a centuries-old antisemitic conspiracy theory, on Facebook in March. Salinas, who is Cuban and whose first language is Spanish, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Wednesday that she only shared the post because she saw the word “communism” but didn’t read more. She also assured the JTA that she “loves the Jewish community,” has Jewish friends, and enjoys an Israeli series on Netflix. In addition to Gorman’s poem, Salinas also challenged books on Black and Cuban history, most of which the school agreed to relocate so only older students could access them.

Culled from the Daily Beast

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Texas House panel advances articles of impeachment against AG Ken Paxton

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The Texas House of Representatives’ Republican-led General Investigating Committee on Thursday advanced articles of impeachment against the state’s Attorney General Ken Paxton (R).

The panel had spent months probing Paxton and recommended impeachment for a range of alleged misconduct and potential crimes.

The state House could vote on the impeachment recommendation as soon as Friday. In Texas, impeachment — which requires a two-thirds vote in the House — would mean he has to step down from his top attorney post until he faces trial in the state Senate.

Four former state prosecutors, commissioned by the Texas House, revealed a number of allegations against Paxton earlier this week, including that he took bribes from a real estate developer and then fired deputies who reported it.

Paxton was indicted by a state grand jury for securities fraud in 2016.

The recommendation comes shortly after Paxton called for the resignation of the Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, alleging the lawmaker had presided over the state chamber while intoxicated.

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Nigeria’s President-Elect, Tinubu is Back in France, Days Before his Inauguration

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With only a few days to go before his inauguration on 29 May, the Nigerian president-elect was once again in Paris as a private citizen.

Bola Tinubu is certainly no stranger to the Paris region. The Nigerian president-elect was in France for about two weeks in mid-May. Officially, it was a private trip for medical purposes.

According to our sources, the Nigerian, who is to be inaugurated as head of state on 29 May, wanted to carry out a final check-up at the American hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine before the ceremony.

Discussions on military cooperationTinubu, 71, has been followed for many years by doctors at this state-of-the-art hospital, located west of Paris, while his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, preferred London institutions. The future president had already made a medical visit to France on 22 March, returning to Nigeria only at the end of April, more than a month after his arrival.

Highly sought in the French capital, Tinubu was been able to take advantage of his visit to address some key issues of his future mandate, primarily energy – a Nigerian sector whose opportunities attract the eye of French companies – and security.

According to our information, Tinubu was able to meet with senior officials of the French Ministry of Defence, including the Gendarmerie.

The French – whose relations with Buhari have sometimes been difficult and who are currently redeploying their resources to West Africa – hope to find in Tinubu and his entourage key interlocutors to improve military cooperation between the two countries. The president-elect is soon to appoint the new head of the Department of State Security, with the successful candidate potentially forming part of his delegation to Paris.

Back in Nigeria, he received on 23 May in Abuja the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose foundation is particularly active on the continent.

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