Headline

Ekweremadu’s Daughter Un UK Court For Human Trafficking

Published

3 years ago

November 7, 2022

Sonia, the daughter of federal lawmaker, Ike Ekweremadu, on Monday, appeared in court over the accusation of trafficking a homeless man into the United Kingdom to harvest his organs for herself.

According to the Daily Mail, the younger Ekweremadu was accused alongside her father Ike Ekweremadu, 60, her mother Beatrice Ekweremadu, 56, and 50-year-old doctor Obinna Obeta of conspiracy to arrange the travel of another person with a view to exploitation.

It was reported that Ms Ekweremadu has not entered a plea but a trial date has been set for January 31, 2023.

It was claimed that Sonia and the accused facilitated the man’s travel from Lagos to London to remove one of his kidneys.

Prosecutors claim the plot was to harvest the man’s organ for Sonia’s benefit.

Sonia has a kidney-related disease and has been on dialysis for some time, the court has been told.

They were arrested after the young man, who previously lived on the streets of Lagos, turned up at Staines police station, claiming he was the victim of trafficking.

The man told officers he had arrived in the UK on February 20 this year and had been taken to Royal Free Hospital for tests, none of which he consented to.

The Daily Mail added that after these tests, the man said he had returned to the house he had been staying in, where he was ‘treated effectively as a slave’.

He said he escaped the address and was homeless for three days before going to the police.

Ike, a barrister and former deputy president of the Nigerian Senate, and his wife Beatrice, were arrested in the UK on June 21 after flying in to Heathrow from Turkey.

Ike and Obeta are currently on remand in the HMP Wandsworth and the HMP Belmarsh respectively. They did not appear at court today.

Beatrice was granted bail at a hearing in July and appeared in court today wearing a black head-wrap and long black coat.

Sonia is also on bail and appeared alongside her mother wearing a knitted, patterned sweater vest.

The defendants were due to enter their pleas but this could not take place today because of further legal argument.

The trial has been brought forward from May to 31 January next year at the Old Bailey.

Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow, said, “We are told that this court is in a position to accommodate the trial…three months earlier.

“If an earlier date can be offered, and one can be, then it should be taken.”

The trial will last four weeks and a High Court judge will preside over the hearing.

The Ekweremadus and Obeta will next appear at the Old Bailey on 16 December this year.

Headline

Judge In Maradona Negligence Case Resigns Amid Scandal

Published

16 hours ago

June 24, 2025

Editor

The Argentine judge who caused the collapse of a trial over the 2020 death of football legend Diego Maradona has resigned, her lawyer said Tuesday.

Julieta Makintach’s involvement in a clandestine documentary about the trial of Maradona’s medical team led to the proceedings being scrapped in May after two months of hearings.

No date has yet been set for a new trial.

“I have the honor of addressing you in my capacity as judge (…)in order to submit my resignation from my position,” Makintach wrote in a letter to the governor of Buenos Aires that was shared by her lawyer.

Makintach was facing impeachment proceedings over her participation in the documentary about the case against seven medical staff accused of manslaughter over Maradona’s death.

Maradona — considered one of the world’s greatest ever players — died in November 2020 at the age of 60 while recovering from brain surgery.

He died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema — a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs — two weeks after going under the knife.

Prosecutor say the conditions of his home convalescence were grossly negligent.

Makintach was one of three judges hearing the case.

Headline

Netanyahu Vows To Thwart ‘Any Attempt’ By Iran To Rebuild Nuclear Programme

Published

16 hours ago

June 24, 2025

Editor

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to crush any attempt by Iran to rebuild its nuclear programme in a national address to the country after 12 days of war.

“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” Netanyahu said after a ceasefire put a halt to airstrikes by the two countries against each other.

“We have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project. And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild it, we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt,” he added.

Headline

Netanyahu Hails ‘Historic Victory’ In Iran War

Published

16 hours ago

June 24, 2025

Editor

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hailed a “historic victory” in his country’s 12-day war against Iran and vowed to prevent Tehran rebuilding its nuclear facilities.

“We have achieved a historic victory,” Netanyahu said in a televised address to the nation after the start of a ceasefire agreed to by both countries.

“Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” he told viewers in the near-10-minute speech.

“We have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project. And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild it, we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt,” he added.

The head of Israel’s military Eyal Zamir said earlier on Tuesday that its strikes had set back Iran’s nuclear programme “by years” and the campaign against the country was now “entering a new phase”.

Iran said on Tuesday that it was ready to return to nuclear negotiations with the United States as the ceasefire took hold.

But Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country would continue to “assert its legitimate rights” to the peaceful use of atomic power.

Israel’s government said in a statement earlier Tuesday that it had removed the “dual existential threat” of Iran’s nuclear programme and missiles during its strikes.

Netanyahu claimed that Israel’s attack on Iran, named “Operation Rising Lion”, would be “recorded in the annals of Israel’s wars, and will be studied by armies all over the world.”

It included repeated strikes on Iran’s nuclear and missile sites, assassinations of military and domestic security service leaders, as well as the bombing of state media and Evin prison in Tehran.

After the United States joined in the conflict with strikes on Sunday, President Donald Trump said his forces had “totally obliterated” Iran’s main nuclear sites.

Analysts said, however, that it remained unclear whether the strikes had put the nuclear threat out of reach, with the possibility that Iran had moved its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium away from the targeted sites.

Tehran has always denied seeking a nuclear weapon.