Presidency sources revealed to SaharaReporters that Anyim and Metuh had a discussion with the president about how Ike Ekweremadu, former Deputy Senate President who was convicted in the UK for an organ harvesting plot and Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) would be freed.
The meeting between former Senate President, Anyim Pius, Chief Olisa Metuh, former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday was to discuss how two incarcerated prominent Igbo sons would regain their freedom, SaharaReporters has learnt.
Presidency sources revealed to SaharaReporters that Anyim and Metuh had a discussion with the president about how Ike Ekweremadu, former Deputy Senate President who was convicted in the UK for an organ harvesting plot and Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) would be freed.
The duo, who were very critical of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the buildup to the 2015 elections, arrived at the Presidential Villa before the 2 pm scheduled for the meeting.
Anyim, who is a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), worked for the APC in Ebonyi State during the last general elections.
Metuh in October 2022 announced his resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and partisan politics.
In a letter dated October 25, 2022, and addressed to the party’s National Chairman, Metuh stated that his decision to leave the party was taken in the course of his recent medical trip abroad.
It was the first known visit of Metuh to the seat of power since former President Goodluck Jonathan lost his reelection bid in 2015.
“Olisa Metuh and Pius Anyim met Tinubu on Wednesday basically to discuss how to free Ekweremadu and Nnamdi Kanu,” one of the presidential sources revealed to SaharaReporters.
The sources noted that the duo understand that Ekweremadu's case is complex because he is in jail in the United Kingdom but wants the President to commit to the cause nonetheless, believing he can help secure freedom for the former lawmaker as Nigeria's leader.
Ekweremadu, 60, was in the first week of May jailed in the UK for nine years and eight months for an organ trafficking plot.
His wife, Beatrice, 56, was also jailed for four years and six months due to her “more limited involvement” in the plot, as the court described Ekweremadu as the “driving force throughout” the process.
A medical doctor, Obinna Obeta, 56, also bagged 10 years after the judge found that he had “targeted the potential donor, who was young, poor and vulnerable”.
The prosecutor, Hugh Davies KC, had said the three defendants were guilty of trafficking with ‘the highest level of culpability’.
In April, former President Olusegun Obasanjo pleaded with the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, London "to be magnanimous enough to temper justice with mercy" ahead of the sentencing of Ekweremadu and Beatrice.
Obasanjo in a letter dated April 3, addressed to the Chief Clerk of the Court pleaded for clemency for Ekweremadu and Beatrice in the organ trafficking case.
Meanwhile, Kanu has been in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) in Abuja since June 2021, despite court orders which granted his release and pleas from stakeholders to then President Muhammadu Buhari and incumbent President Tinubu to release him.