A former Nigerian Deputy Senate President and incumbent Senator in the 9th National Assembly, Ike Ekweremadu; his wife, Beatrice; and their Doctor, Obinna Obeta, have been found guilty of organ trafficking under the Modern Slavery Act, by a United Kingdom, UK, London, Court,
Senator Ekweremadu, his wife and Dr. Obeta, were found guilty of facilitating the travel of a young man to the UK, with a view to his exploitation, after a 6-week trial, at the Old Bailey.
According to the Jury, they all criminally conspired to bring the 21-year-old Lagos Street Trader to London, to exploit him for his kidney.
Senator Ekweremadu and his wife were charged in the United Kingdom, after they allegedly lured a young man from Nigeria to harvest his organ (kidney) for their ailing daughter, Sonia.
The Nigerian Senator was last year, arrested and had been in the custody of the UK authorities, after they received complaints from the young man about their alleged plans to harvest his organ.
The Prosecutor, Hugh Davies KC, told the Court, on Thursday, that the Ekweremadus and Dr. Obeta had treated the man and other potential donors as “disposable assets, spare parts for reward”. He said that they entered an “emotionally cold commercial transaction” with the young Nigerian man.
Davies further told the Jury that the behaviour of Senator Ekweremadu, a very successful Nigerian Lawyer and Founder of an anti-poverty charity, who helped draw up Nigeria’s Laws against organ trafficking, showed “entitlement, dishonesty and hypocrisy”.
He said that Senator Ekweremadu, who owns several properties and has 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.”
Senator Ekweremadu, who denied the charge, told the Court that he was the victim of a scam.
Dr. Obeta, who also denied the charge, claimed that the man was not offered a reward for his kidney, and was acting altruistically.
Beatrice on her part, denied any knowledge of the alleged conspiracy, while Sonia did not give any evidence.
The Judge, Justice Jeremy Johnson, will pass their sentence at a later date.
More news later…