Organ harvesting: NIS backs former Senate President, Ekweremadu

By Henry UGOCHUKWU, Lagos

The Comptroller General, CG, of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, Idris Jere, on Sunday confirmed that the service followed due process in issuing a Nigerian passport to David Nwamini, who was allegedly trafficked to the United Kingdom for organ harvesting by former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.

It would be recalled that Nwamini had allegedly claimed to be a minor after he arrived in the UK where he was to donate his kidney to Ekweremadu’s daughter.

But photos of his Nigerian passport, as circulated on social media, showed his date of birth to be October 12, 2000, placing him at 21 years old.

Addressing a press conference on the controversy surrounding his age, the NIS boss said Nwamini is indeed 21 according to his record in the possession of the NIS, discarding claims that the Service didn’t thoroughly vet the documents provided by the applicant.

According to Jere, “The fact of the matter concerning the case above, therefore, is that Mr David Ukpo Nwamini applied and paid for the e-passport using the NIS portal after which he approached the passport office in Gwagwalada, FCT Abuja, on November 2, 2021, for his interview.

“To support his application, Mr Nwamini presented all necessary documents required including his birth certificate issued by the National Population Commission, showing October 12, 2000, as his date of birth; his National Identification Number, issued by NIMC corroborating the date of birth; a Certificate of Origin issued by Ebonyi State Government Liaison office in Abuja, and a guarantor’s form duly signed.

“NIS relies on documentation supplied by other agencies, and we are not under any obligation to go to those agencies to verify those documents. What we do is that we look at the documents and applicants physically. Once that is done, we go ahead to process.”

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