Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, on Tuesday, prayed a Federal High Court, Abuja to dismiss an application filed by the kidney donor, David Ukpo, asking the court to set aside its orders made on July 1 and July 6.
Ukpo, through his lawyer, Bamidele Igbinedion, had filed a motion on notice, urging Justice Inyang Ekwo to set aside the orders, directing some agencies of government and banks to release his biodata to Ekweremadu and his wife.
Ukpo, who is currently in the United Kingdom in connection with the alleged organ harvesting charge against the Ekweremadus, had said that granting the couple’s request violated his fundamental rights to privacy guaranteed by Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
But in a counter affidavit deposed to by Bright Ekweremadu, the immediate younger brother to the ex-deputy Senate President, the applicants, said Ukpo was not entitled to the reliefs sought as the law did not permit such.
The counter affidavit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/984/2022, was dated and filed on September 8 by their counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN.
In a 20-point argument, Ekweremadu averred that though the court gave its ruling on July 1, Ukpo’s right to fair hearing was not breached.
He said the documents which were released by the agencies and banks upon the orders of the court had been transmitted to the UK and the same had been “tendered at the Uxbridge Magistrate Court, and at the Central Criminal Court in the UK and had subsequently formed part of the record of the courts.
“That I know as a fact that the documents which are already in evidence before those Honourable courts in the United Kingdom cannot be retrieved by this Honourable Court.
“That the courts in the United Kingdom are already seised of the documents” and that he was in the last criminal proceeding where the documents were used.
He said the documents were required to prove the actual age of Ukpo, who claimed to be 15 years of age but believed to be well over 21 years of age.
According to him, if the applicant (Ukpo) had not lied about his age, he had nothing to fear and the document would hear him out.
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