How A Doctor Defrauded The Family Of Ekweremadu Of N4.5 Million
On Thursday, jurors in the ongoing Old Bailey trial of Dr. Obinna Obeta, Beatrice, former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, his wife, Sonia, their daughter, and Beatrice learned that Obeta defrauded the Senator’s family of N4.5 million while setting up Sonia’s kidney transplant through David Nwamini, the donor he found.
Obeta encouraged his former University of Nigeria, Nsukka classmate to get his brother involved in funding the planned kidney transplant even though he was unaware of the recipient from the start of the conversation he had with the Senator’s younger brother, Dr. Isaac Diwe Ekweremadu, in September 2021. He revealed to Diwe how he partially paid for the transplant he had two months before.
While the conversation went on, Obeta emailed Diwe a bill for N4.5m, claiming that N1m was the agent’s fee and the remaining N4m was for the 21-year-old donor. Nwamini, however, only earned N177, 100. Ogbonna, Obeta’s brother-in-law who was meant to be the agent, received little more than N223,000. The sum that had been agreed for Ogbonna and Nwamini was reportedly not disclosed to the jury.
An irate Obeta grudgingly testified from the witness stand that he had “scammed” both the Ekweremadus and Nwamini during cross-examination from the Senator’s attorney, Martin Hicks, KC, and the Crown prosecutor, Hugh Davies, KC.
You were or were you not a big recipient of the money given by the Ekweremadus, was Hicks’s question to him. The doctor became enraged and said that it seemed that his selfless effort to save a life was done in exchange for money. He said, “I don’t believe I did that.
Despite the defense’s evidence claiming otherwise, his First Bank of Nigeria balance increased from N400 to N4.9m. Hicks arranged for the donor when Hicks inquired, “Did Mr. Nwamini receive any of this money?” in addition to the N177, 100. They were unaware that he was attempting to acquire some funding for them, he attempted to explain.
Mr. Justice Johnson, the judge, had to step in to get the doctor to respond. “I suppose the explanation is it didn’t get to David,” he then said to Obeta. Obeta then offered a “yes” in response.
Later, when Davies got the opportunity to speak, he also inquired as to Nwamini’s knowledge of the provision made by the Ekweremadus for him in exchange for his kidney donation. “I didn’t tell him anything,” Obeta told the jury. The trial goes on.
