An FCT High Court has adjourned the suit seeking damages for a victim of illegal organ harvesting till February 19, 2024, for a hearing.
The suit was brought by the father of the 16-year-old victim, Salaudeen Saliman Adedoyin, against Dr Aremu Abayomi Adeniran, Dr. Christopher Otabor, and Alliance Hospital and Services Ltd.
The case was instituted following a Daily Trust’s investigation that uncovered an organ harvesting syndicate and implicated Alliance Hospital.
At the hearing, defence counsel, C. J. Dimgba, informed the court that he was just briefed by the defence and was yet to study the case file.
He therefore pleaded for an adjournment to enable him to prepare for the hearing.
Counsel to the Legal Aid Counsel, who brought the matter to court, E. M. Kolawole, did not object to the adjournment.
The Legal Aid Council had filed the suit on September 9 seeking the award of the sum of N500 million in general damages for wrongful and unlawful harvesting and removal of the right kidney of Adedoyin’s son.
Another sum of N200 million in general damages for the pain, suffering, anguish, and emotional, psychological, and mental trauma suffered by the Adedoyins.
Adedoyin’s son had averred that sometime on February 9, 2023, he was introduced to one Emmanuel Melody who offered to help him secure employment with the hospital, Alliance Hospital in Masaka, Nasarawa State.
He narrated how in the course of securing the job, Melody and other staff of the hospital made him sign an electronic affidavit in court, without reading it and X-ray on him on a day he was supposed to go for his JAMB capturing.
He said on September 17, he was made to sleep over in the hospital, and in the middle of the night, made to sign a document without reading it.
He further averred that Dr Aremu later informed him that night that a kidney transplant surgery was to be conducted on him.
He said he “resisted but was already too weak to move and he lost consciousness in the course of his resistance.”
Its campaign of calumny against us – Hospital
Meanwhile, the management of Alliance Hospital has reacted to the Daily Trust report on organ harvesting, describing it as a campaign of calumny against the hospital.
Dr. Otabor C.U. Fwa, the Medical Director of the Hospital in a statement said: “The writer of the article took a position against the hospital, pronounced a guilty verdict on it, and called for punishment for the hospital without due regard to the facts.”
“I encourage Daily Trust newspaper to dig deep to unravel the key players in this trade. Alliance Hospital has nothing to do with illegal organ harvesting.
“In the meantime, we have instructed our lawyers to write Daily Trust newspaper to retract the defamatory publication against Alliance Hospital within a specific period or face legal action.”
However, the Executive Director of Digital and Editorial of Daily Trust, Naziru Mikailu, refuted the claim by the hospital insisting that: “The report was based on findings from a thoroughly conducted investigation that lasted for three months. Therefore, we stand by our story.”
