Former Nigerian Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, his wife and a medical “middleman” have been found guilty of an organ-trafficking plot, which saw them bring a 21-year-old man to the UK from Lagos.
Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, and Dr. Obinna Obeta, 50, were convicted of conspiring to exploit the man for his kidney, in the first such case under modern slavery laws.
The Central Criminal Court, The Old Bailey heard the organ was for the couple’s daughter, Sonia, aged 25.
She was cleared of the same charge.
The victim, a street trader from Lagos, was brought to the UK last year to provide a kidney in an £80,000 private transplant at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
He said he was promised opportunities in the UK for helping, and that he only realised what was going on when he met doctors at the hospital.
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While it is lawful to donate a kidney, it becomes criminal if there is a reward of money or other material advantages.
When he was rejected as unsuitable, the court heard the Ekweremadus transferred their interest to Turkey and set about finding another donor.
The Ekweremadus, who has an address in Willesden Green, north-west London, and Dr Obeta, from Southwark, south London, denied the charge against them.
Editor Oloyede Oworu
