Ekweremadu’s Organ Harvesting Trial Continues In UK

Ekweremadu’s Organ Harvesting Trial Continues In UK

On Monday, Nigeria’s former deputy senate president, his wife, and their daughter appeared in a London court for allegedly plotting to harvest a street trader’s kidney.

Ike and Beatrice Ekweremadu, their 25-year-old daughter Sonia, and a doctor, Obinna Obeta, are accused of plotting to steal the man’s organs.

The kidney was allegedly intended for Sonia, who is still on dialysis due to a kidney condition, in exchange for up to £7,000 ($8,430) in cash and the promise of a new life in Britain for the 21-year-old trader.

After pleading not guilty, all four appeared in London’s famous Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey, for the start of the trial. If convicted, they face life in prison.

It is legal to donate a kidney in the United Kingdom, but not for monetary compensation. Prosecutors claim that whether or not the Lagos street trader consented, the wealthy Nigerians committed a crime.

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The unnamed accuser is said to have gone to UK police after finally refusing to consent to the procedure in February 2022, following preliminary tests at a north London hospital.

According to prosecutor Hugh Davies, the consultant doctor said the young man had “limited understanding” of why he was there and was “visibly relieved” when told the transplant would not take place.

According to the lawyer, he had been coached to give false answers to doctors at the hospital, and Sonia was “singing from the same hymn sheet” to create a false family history linking the pair as cousins.

Under UK modern slavery legislation, the Ekweremadus and the doctor are accused of conspiring to arrange the travel of another person for the purpose of exploitation.

Ike Ekweremadu, 60, is a senator from Enugu state in southeast Nigeria for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.

He has remained in custody since the judge agreed with prosecutors that he could attempt to flee the country. His wife and daughter have been released on conditional bail.

“His status and influence had produced a significant degree of wealth. They had international connections,” the prosecutor said.

“There are, however, certain things that money and status cannot guarantee in any family — and they include good health,” Davies added.

According to the lawyer, Obeta oversaw the process in Nigeria after undergoing a kidney transplant in Britain with an organ donated by a “cousin” in 2021.

That donor allegedly then recruited the 21-year-old man at the heart of the Old Bailey trial, who was told he was being offered work in London and would have to undergo medical tests.

“In the real world, altruistic donors are an exceptionally rare commodity: those willing to provide organs for reward are not,” Davies said.

“They are often young, intrinsically economically disadvantaged, young men,” he said.

The trial is expected to last seven weeks.

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