Senator Ekweremadu and wife have been found guilty of organ trafficing in the UK! The prominent Nigerian politician, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, his wife and a medical “middleman” has been found guilty of an organ-trafficking plot.
The Metropolitan police arrested them after they took a 21-year-old man to the UK from Lagos.
The 60-year-old political and his wife Beatrice, 56, and Dr Obinna Obeta, 50, were found guilty of conspiring to exploit the man for his kidney, setting a precedent for this kind of crime under modern slavery laws.
The organ was for the couple’s 25 years older daughter Sonia was supposed to get a kidney. However, she was cleared on all charges on the organ-trafficking plot.
Rumours have been circulating that the senator and his wife brought the underaged street vendor from Lagos to the UK last year to donate a kidney in an £80,000 private transplant at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
The prosecution also alleged that the street trader was money to the tune of £7,000. Along with the monetary offer, they promised him opportunities in the UK in exchange for his help. According to the victim, he realised what had happened after he got to the hospital and saw the doctors.
Furthermore, the defendants had attempted to persuade medical staff at the Royal Free by claiming to be the cousin of Sonia, who has a serious illness and needs weekly dialysis even though they were not related.
Donating a kidney is permissible, but it is against the law to receive money or other types of compensation for it.
The victim alleges he was threatened, after Dr Peter Dupont of Royal Free discovered he was ineligible
Dr Peter Dupont of Royal Free discovered the donor was ineligible after determining they had not been counselled on the hazards of the surgery or had the means to provide for long-term care.
The court noticed Ekweremadu and then shifted their focus to Turkey and started seeking another benefactor.
They launched an investigation after the young man ran away from London and slept on the street for roughly four days before he walked into a police station in Staines, Surrey, crying and in distress.
Relaying his fears, he told the 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.”
