Anti-abortion activist, Dr. Philip Njemanze was Monday arrested following his allegations suggesting Governor Rochas Okorocha’s possible complicity in a transnational human organ trafficking ring.
While analysing Okorocha’s earlier decision to concession the existing 11 general hospitals and 27 others under construction to ‘unlicensed expatriate physicians’ unapproved by the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council, Njemanze stated that with the flaws in the newly passed National Health Bill, the governor had set the stage for easy organ poaching from patients in the state by expatriate doctors who can easily ferry same overseas via covert means.
Njemanze who is also the Imo state chairman of the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN) spearheaded the agitation that forced government to reverse itself and repeal the Imo Law No.12 of 2012 popularly known as the ‘Abortion Law’ for which prolife groups in the state had criticized Governor Okorocha of legalizing abortion in Imo.
Contacted, the Police spokesman in the state, DSP Andrew Enwerem said he was not aware of the arrest of Njemanze but sources at Njemanze’s hospital told newsmen that Njemanze was whisked away by the Police to the state police headquarter.
Njemanze however told our correspondent when contacted on phone that he was whisked away to the State Police Headquarter by some policemen around 9.am yesterday and quizzed by the State Police Commissioner, Mr. Taiwo Lakanu.
As at 4.05pm, before filing this report, Njemanze was still being held at the police command having written his statement.
Investigations however reveal that Njemanze’s arrest was in connection to a petition by the Imo State Government written by the Attorney General of the State, Barr. M. O. Nlemadim.
Njemanze had during the doctors’ protest in Owerri a fortnight ago linked the governor’s many trips to Turkey, Kosovo, Croatia and some Asian countries to his alleged involvement with an organ trafficking cartel.
Said he, “Njemanze had said, “For the first time in human history, a government has declared itself a part of an organ trafficking cartel. Under Section 305, Mr. President has the powers to declare an emergency in Imo state and that is the only intervention required in Imo now.”
Also in a petition to Nigerian Presidency dated 6th November, 2013, Njemanze drew the attention of government to international conspiracy to undermine the lives of Nigerians adding that only a major investigation headed by the Attorney General of the Federation had the capacity to unveil the details of the conspiracy.
Continuing, the petition read, “It is also necessary to uncover the financial background to this venture. On 14th February, 2012, Governor Rochas Okorocha told Imo people that the new 27 hospitals being constructed in Imo state have been concessioned out to Apollo Hospital of India. Apollo hospital has been a major source of friction between the doctors in public service and the governor. However, more disturbing is that, according to the Indian Lok Sabha Parliamentary Report on Illegal Organ Transplantation, the Apollo Hospital, India was complicit in organ trafficking.”
Meanwhile, newspapers in the Republic of Serbia are awash with the report linking Kosovo’s Foreign Minister Hashim Thaqi and Okorocha to a human organ trafficking cartel.
A report by Balkan Insight published last Thursday indicates that Serbia’s war crimes prosecution in a swift reaction to publications in Nigerian dailies has put machinery in motion to investigate the alleged involvements of Hashim Thaqi and Governor Rochas Okorocha in human organ trafficking. The report noted that the prosecutors are interested in reports and submissions of any person who may have information connected to the organ harvesting and trafficking network that became notorious after the war in Kosovo in 1999.
A press statement from the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor, Federal Republic of Serbia informs that a letter has been sent to the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the 11th of February, 2016, requesting that, “competent authorities interview Dr. Philip Njemanze, the doctor who made public claims of collaboration between Hashim Thaqi and Rochas Okorocha on trafficking in organs of Serbs abducted in Kosovo-Metohija.”
Continuing, the statement read, “In compliance with the Act on International Legal Assistance, this Prosecutor’s Office has initiated – through the Serbian Justice Ministry – a procedure that should ensure the hearing of a person who may have knowledge of human organs trafficking in Kosovo-Metohija and northern Albania.”
The release noted that Serbian prosecutors have presently interviewed 160 witnesses in this case and have been involved in intensive cooperation on the case with the EULEX Special Investigative Task Force (SITF), whose officials – owing to support provided by the Serbian institutions, have been able to interview over 200 witnesses in Serbia’s territory.
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