“I don’t think things will ever be the same, already I feel guilty, because I feel all these happened because of me”.
Those were the heart-rendering words of Sonia, the daughter of former Deputy Senate President, Dr. Ike Ekweremadu, who was sentenced on Friday by a United Kingdom court to nine years and eight months in prison for an organ trafficking plot.
Sonia’s mother, Beatrice also got a jail term of four years and six months, while the medical doctor who acted as a ‘middleman’ in the plot, Dr. Obinna Obeta, was sentenced to 10 years and his medical licence suspended.
The couple’s attempt to save their daughter, who has a kidney disorder, failed when a young man procured for the process declined after being flown from Lagos to London, leading to the arrest, trial and subsequent conviction of the Ekweremadu and Obeta.
In an interview with the BBC on Friday, Sonia, 25, said: “I do not have a hand in all the medical activities, my family is the one handling everything”.
She described her disease as Nephrotic syndrome — a kind of kidney disorder that makes the body pass too much protein in the urine.
Sonia further said: “I understand the conviction, however, I personally disagree with it. That is from a very biased perspective as their daughter, I will obviously always back my parents.
“However, the law has taken its course, we just need to move on as one family”, she said.
She said she is undergoing dialysis.
Sonia described her disease as Nephrotic syndrome — a kind of kidney disorder that makes the body pass too much protein in the urine.
For her condition, Sonia said there are two options — “which is go stay on dialysis for the rest of her life or undergo a kidney transplant”.
Source: The Nation
