In a major revelation from the blockbuster docu-series ‘Daniel vs Ekweremadu’, Channels TV’s UK correspondent, Juliana Olayinka has said that Evelyn ‘Ebere’ Agbasonu, an Igbo interpreter who allegedly asked for payment of £1500 to help coach the victim-survivor ‘Daniel’ to secure a private kidney transplant for Sonia Ekweremadu actually turned on her clients.
The docu-series is written and directed by award-winning filmmaker and TV host, Chude Jideonwo.
Sonia is the daughter of former Nigerian deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu who was sentenced to 10 years in a British jail for human trafficking last year.
“Daniel said, in court, that when he and the Igbo woman were in the lift, she turned on them,” Olayinka said. “She said to him, ‘don’t do it’”
According to Olayinka, “It stirred something in him, it rattled him. It rattled him so much that the final consultation came out and they said ‘We are not going to do the kidney donation’”
Ms Agbasonu who was a longtime staff of the Royal Free Hospital, helped interpret Igbo in an initial meeting on February 24 between Dr. Peter Dupont and ‘Daniel’. It was after the meeting that the doctor decided the transplant could not go ahead.
According to the prosecutor Hugh Davies KC in the court at the time, Ms Agbasonu’s conduct was “somewhat extraordinary”.
Mr Ekweremadu’s brother, Diwe, who brokered the meeting, had said to his brother before: “I’ve met the Igbo interpreter. She agreed to work with us. She will be involved in coaching the boy, and during his consultation and interviews she will be providing the relevant interpretation. She insisted that I give her £1,500. She covered up for him and added the words as much as possible.”
According to the text messages viewed by the documentary producers, during the process, Mr Ekweremadu had told his brother to “test others for back up (kidneys).”
Part 1 of the two-part docu-series was released on Friday, 23 August by the studio, Chude Jideonwo Presents.
‘Daniel’ is the name given by the documentary filmmakers to the victim-survivor of the first conviction under the UK’s Modern Slavery Law – under which Mr Ekweremadu became the first to be sentenced to jail alongside his wife, Beatrice and a doctor-friend, Obinna Obeta.
It follows a directive from the judge of the case for the real name to remain undisclosed.
‘Daniel vs Ekweremadu’ tells the story of Senator Ekweremadu’s fall from deputy senate president to British jailbird upon his conviction for organ harvesting.
Shot in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, the series includes exclusive access to British prosecutors, police, the family of the survivor-victim amongst others in this first-of-its-kind thriller-style documentary from a West African independent studio.
The two-part series is available exclusively on the streaming platform www.withChude.com. It is produced by the factual film and series studio, Chude Jideonwo Presents.
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