Former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice
Eko Hot Blog reports that the former Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, his wife, and a doctor have been convicted of human organ trafficking in the United Kingdom.
According to Guardian UK, Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice, and Dr Obinna Obeta, were found guilty of facilitating the travel of a young man to Britain with a view to his exploitation after a six-week trial at the Old Bailey court in UK.
However, the couple’s daughter, Sonia, was cleared of the same charge.
The jury found that her parents and the doctor criminally conspired to bring the 21-year-old Lagos street trader to London to exploit him for his kidney.
The court heard that the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been offered an illegal reward to become a donor for the senator’s daughter after kidney disease forced her to drop out of a master’s degree in film at Newcastle University.
The trio’s legal troubles started in June 2022 after the London Metropolitan Police arrested and charged them on suspicion of illegal organ harvesting.
During the trial, the court heard that, in February 2022, the victim was falsely presented to a private renal unit at Royal Free hospital in London as Sonia’s cousin in a failed attempt to persuade medics to carry out an £80,000 transplant.
Sonia Ekweremadu walks behind her mother, Beatrice, in court in November 2022
The prosecutor Hugh Davies told the court that, for a fee, a medical secretary at the hospital acted as an Igbo translator between the man and the doctors to help try to convince them he was an altruistic donor.
Davies also alleged that the Ekweremadus and Obeta had treated the man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward”. He said they entered an “emotionally cold commercial transaction” with the man.
Ekweremadu, who denied the charge, told the court he was the victim of a scam. Obeta, who also denied the charge, claimed the man was not offered a reward for his kidney and was acting altruistically. Beatrice denied any knowledge of the alleged conspiracy. Sonia did not give eevidence
Ekweremadu and Obeta, however, admitted falsely claiming the man was Sonia’s cousin in his visa application and in documents presented to the hospital.
The prosecutor added that Ekweremadu ignored medical advice to find a donor for his daughter among genuine family members.
The guilty verdict is said to be the first of its kind under UK’s Modern Slavery Act, 2022.
The trial judge, Justice Jeremy Johnson, is expected to pass sentence on May 5, 2023.
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