The United Kingdom court has sentenced former Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, Ike Ekweremadu to nine years and eight months in prison for an organ trafficking plot.
The court also sentenced his wife, Beatrice, to 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 also suspended.
Ekweremadu, and his wife were arrested last 23rd June and charged to court for bringing a child to the United Kingdom for organ harvesting.
In a statement, UK’s Metropolitan Police said the couple were charged to court following an investigation by its specialist crime team.
On 23rd March – six months after their arrest – the jury ruled that the couple and Obeta had conspired to bring a 21-year-old Lagos street trader to London to exploit him for his kidney.
The young man was said to have been falsely presented as the cousin of Sonia – Ekweremadu’s daughter – in a failed bid to persuade doctors to carry out an £80,000 private procedure on Sonia at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
Sonia’s kidney disease forced her to drop out of a Master’s degree in Film at Newcastle University, the court heard as it said Sonia was found not guilty.
The young man was said to have been offered an illegal reward to become a donor for Sonia after kidney disease forced her to drop out of a master’s degree in film at Newcastle University.
The conviction was the first verdict of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act.
