Senator Ike Ekweremadu, His Wife, Beatrice Ekweremadu And Daughter Are Found Gu!lty Of Organ Traff!ck!ng In The United Kingdom (Details)

Senator Ike Ekweremadu, his wife, his daughter, and a doctor have been convicted of organ trafficking, in the first verdict of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act in the United Kingdom.

After a six-week trial at the Old Bailey, Ike Ekweremadu, 60, a former vice president, his wife Beatrice, 56, their daughter Sonia, 25, and Dr. Obinna Obeta, 51, were all found guilty of supporting a young man’s travel to Britain with the intension to exploit him of his kidney.

The jury concluded that they had criminally planned to lure the young street vendor from Lagos to London so they could take advantage of him for his kidney.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been offered an illegal reward to become a donor for the senator’s daughter after kidney disease forced her to drop out of a master’s degree in film at Newcastle University, the court heard.

The young man attempted to convince doctors to perform a $80,000 kidney transplant back in February 2022 by posing as Sonia’s cousin at a private renal unit at London’s Royal Free hospital. The man attempted to persuade the physicians that he was an altruistic donor by paying a medical secretary at the hospital to serve as an Igbo translator between them, the court heard.

The prosecutor Hugh Davies KC told the court the Ekweremadus and Obeta had treated the man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward”. He said they entered an “emotionally cold commercial transaction” with the man.
 

The behaviour 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”, Davies told the jury.
 

He said Ekweremadu, who owns several properties and had a staff of 80, “agreed to reward someone for a kidney for his daughter – 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”.

Davies added: “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.”

Ekweremadu, who denied the charge, told the court he was the victim of a scam. Obeta, who also denied the charge, claimed the man was not offered a reward for his kidney and was acting altruistically.

Beatrice denied any knowledge of the alleged conspiracy. Sonia did not give evidence.

WhatsApp messages showed to the court revealed Obeta charged Ekweremadu 4.5m naira (about £8,000) made up of an “agent fee” and a “donor fee”.

Ekweremadu and Obeta admitted falsely claiming the man was Sonia’s cousin in his visa application and in documents presented to the hospital.
 

Davies said Ekweremadu ignored medical advice to find a donor for his daughter among genuine family members. He said: “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.”

The judge, Mr Justice Jeremy Johnson, will pass sentence at a later date.