A confidant of former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu has told The Guardian that the “plea for mercy” letter dated April 3, written to the Chief Clerk of the Central Criminal Court, a.k.a., the Old Bailey, on behalf of Ekweremadu and his wife by former President Olusegun Obasanjo was leaked to the public. The confidant has been to His Majesty’s Prison in Belmarsh, South East London, twice to see the senator since his conviction last month.
Asked if the letter is authentic and from Obasanjo, the confidant smiled, saying: “Honestly, I don’t know who leaked it,” when The Guardian first spoke to him on Thursday. Continuing, he said: “The letter attests to his – senator’s character, and what Obasanjo was requesting for is tempering justice with mercy.”
In the letter, the former military Head of State and two-time democratically elected Nigerian president among others enumerated the public service life of the senator, asking the court to “temper justice with mercy” when it sentences both the Senator and his wife, Beatrice, on May 5. Ekweremadu and his wife and their kidney donor broker, Dr Obinna Obeta, were convicted of “facilitating and arranging the travel with the aim of exploitation” of a 21-year-old on April 23.
While speaking to the senator’s friend on Friday, he said that: “l don’t know the process “but confirmed it (letter) has been sent. Asked if the senator’s wife is also at Belmarsh, he replied “no.” On how Ekweremadu is faring, he simply said, “He is fine and strong.”
Reacting to the letter, former Head of Public Relations at the Nigerian High Commission, London, Mr. Chukwunonyen Udegbunam told The Guardian on Thursday that the letter was in order, saying that it must be part of efforts to persuade the judge to temper his eventual sentencing with mercy. He noted that besides the former president being highly connected in the UK upper class, he is the right person to reach out to in such a situation.
The retired diplomat further said that pleading for mercy and character witness “is all part of the British justice system.”
Udegbunam, who during his tenure at the Northumberland Avenue office of the High Commission, wrote some of Obasanjo’s speeches and once accompanied him to Cuba and the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York, pointed out that the senator’s friends and family should have taken the initiative to reach out to the former president at the onset of the matter.
“At the initial stage, before he’s committed,” would have been better. Udegbunam added that: “If any government will do anything, it will be at the time of his arrest.” But despite the letter, he said the “sentencing committee have their own rules and guidelines” and that the plea for mercy is not an attempt to “violate the law.”
Dr Ray Onwuelo, who wears two hats of being a medical doctor and lawyer, also told The Guardian the character witness and plea is in order.
If he saw the letter, legal commentator, Chinedu Okoye, who was in court for both the trial and on the day the jury returned their verdict, said yes, “I saw that letter, it is a good one.”
