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By Emma Emeozor with agency reports
Former deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, 60, and his wife, Beatrice, 56, who have been facing charges in a London court for illegal organ harvesting were convicted yesterday.
They were accused of trafficking a Nigerian telephone parts hawker based in Lagos to Britain to illegally harvest his kidney for a transplant for their sick daughter, Sonia, 25. Also convicted was a Nigerian doctor, Obinna Obeta, who was said to be the middleman.
The jury deliberated for nearly 14 hours to convict Ekweremadu and the other two defendants. The prosecution confirmed the maximum sentence in the organ harvesting case is one of life. Sonia, who had declined to give evidence, wept in court as she was cleared by the jury and tearfully hugged her father as he was remanded into custody with the other guilty defendants, ahead of sentencing on May 5, 2023.
Obeta, of Southwark, south London, recently had a private kidney transplant at the Royal Free with a Nigerian donor. The victim knew the man who had donated his kidney to Obeta. Ekweremadu, his wife and Obeta were convicted of conspiracy to arrange the travel of another person to London with a view to exploiting him for his kidney.
The Ekweremadus, who have an address in Willesden Green, north-west London, and Obeta had denied the charges against them. Sonia, the intended recipient of the organ, who has a serious and deteriorating kidney condition and requires dialysis, was found not guilty of any part in the plan.
Prosecutors said Ekweremadu and Beatrice had brought the 21-year-old boy, whose name could not be disclosed according to British law, to London, in February, last year, with the offer up to £7,000 and promised opportunities in the UK for helping, and that he only realised what was going on when he met doctors at the hospital.
The victim was brought to the UK last year to provide a kidney in an £80,000 private transplant at the Royal Free Hospital in London. Donating a kidney is not unlawful in Britain, but it is a criminal offence to offer a reward, regardless of whether the donor is complicit. Police said the guilty verdicts marked the first time someone had been convicted in Britain of human trafficking for the purpose of organ harvesting.
It was alleged the defendants had tried to convince medics at the Royal Free by pretending he was the cousin of Sonia. The proposed transplant never went ahead as a consultant at London’s Royal Free hospital had become suspicious about the circumstances surrounding the proposed donor.
Royal Free consultant, Dr Peter Dupont, concluded the donor was unsuitable after learning he had no counselling or advice about the risks of surgery and lacked funds for the lifelong care he would need.
The court heard the Ekweremadus then transferred their interest to Turkey and set about finding another donor. The case came to light when the victim escaped and slept rough for days before going to a police station in Staines, in Surrey, complaining he had been trafficked and someone was trying to harvest his kidney.
Relaying his fears, he told police: “The doctor said I was too young, but the man said if you do not do it here he would carry me back to Nigeria and do it there.”
Detective Inspector Esther Richardson said in a statement: “This conviction sends out a clear message across the world, the UK will not tolerate the international industry in illegal organ removal.”
In his comment, Chief Crown Prosecutor Joanne Jakymec, described the case as “an horrific plot to exploit a vulnerable victim by trafficking him to the UK for the purpose of transplanting his kidney.
“The convicted defendants showed utter disregard for the victim’s welfare, health and well-being and used their considerable influence to a high degree of control throughout, with the victim having limited understanding of what was really going on here.”
London’s Old Bailey court was told that Ekweremadu and his wife were “significant figures in Nigeria with power, influence and a significant degree of wealth.” Prosecutor Hugh Davies had told the court that “there are, however, certain things that money and status cannot guarantee in any family, and they include good health.”
Jurors heard that Sonia was studying for a master’s degree at Newcastle University when she became ill in December 2019. In 2021, her father enlisted the help of his medically-trained brother, Diwe Ekweremadu, to search for a donor, the court heard. Diwe, who remains in Nigeria, turned to a former classmate, Obeta. Obeta then engaged with Dr Chris Agbo of Vintage Health Group, a medical tourism company, as well as an agent to arrange a visa for the donor, the court heard.
