Senator Ike Ekweremadu and wife, Beatrice
The Central Criminal Court also known as Old Bailey has convicted a former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, 60, and his wife, Beatrice, 56, of organ trafficking offences.
Others found guilty in the scam are Ekweremadu's daughter, Sonia, 25, and a Nigerian doctor Obinna Obeta, 50, who had pleaded not guilty to the charges of organ harvesting on Friday, January 13, 2023.
The accused 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.
UK Guardian reports that the accused conspired to bring the 21-year-old Lagos street trader, David Ukpo to London for kidney transplant.
Ukpo was offered an illegal reward to become a donor for Sonia Ekweremadu, who was diagnosed with a kidney disease that compelled her to drop out of a master’s degree programme in film at Newcastle University.
“In February 2022, the man 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.
"For a fee, a medical secretary at the hospital acted as an Igbo translator between the man and the doctors to convince them he was an altruistic donor," UK Guardian added.
The prosecution lawyer, Hugh Davies informed the court that the Ekweremadus and Obeta had treated the man and other potential donors as disposable assets – spare parts for reward.
He noted that they (accused) entered an 'emotionally cold commercial transaction' with the man, Ukpo.
Davies hinted that the body language of Ekweremadu, a successful lawyer and founder of an anti-poverty charity who helped draw up Nigeria’s laws against organ trafficking, showed entitlement, dishonesty and hypocrisy.
He stated that Ekweremadu, who owns several properties with 80 staff, agreed to reward someone that would donate a kidney for his daughter, adding that: "Somebody in circumstances of poverty and from whom he distanced himself and made no inquiries, and with whom, for his own political protection, he wanted no direct contact.
“What he agreed to do was not simply expedient in the clinical interests of his daughter, Sonia. It was exploitation, it was criminal. It is no defence to say he acted out of love for his daughter. Her clinical needs cannot come at the expense of the exploitation of somebody in poverty,” Davies said.
But Ekweremadu denied the charge, claiming that he was a victim of a scam, just as doctor Obeta also denied the charge under the pretext that Ukpo was not offered a reward for his kidney and was acting altruistically.
Ekweremadu’s wife, Beatrice, also denied any knowledge of the alleged conspiracy while his daughter, Sonia, failed to provide evidence at the court.
WhatsApp messages shown to the court revealed that Obeta charged Ekweremadu N4.5 million (about £8,000) made up of an agent and donor fee for the kidney transplant.
Laced with guilt, Messrs Ekweremadu and Obeta later admitted to falsely claiming Mr Nwamini was Sonia’s cousin in his visa application and in documents presented to the hospital.
Davies lamented that Ekweremadu ignored medical advice to find a donor for his daughter among genuine family members.
“At no point in time was there ever any intention for a family member close, medium or distant to do what could be paid for from a pool of donors," he said.
The judge, Jeremy Johnson, is expected to pass a sentence at a later date in a verdict described as first of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act.
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