Former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife and their middleman have been jailed to various years in prison, in the United Kingdom for organ trafficking.
Ekweremadu, his wife and their middleman were all found guilty in UK of attempting to traffic in human body parts.
According to the report by BBC, the court ruled against them with a doctor “intervening for them” after they took a young man to the UK from Lagos.
Senator Ike Ekweremadu, 60, and his wife Beatrice, 56, wanted the organ for their 25-year-old daughter Sonia, the couple’s trial at the Old Bailey heard.
The pair and and Dr Obinna Obeta, 50, were convicted previously of conspiring to exploit the man for his kidney.
It is said to be the first such case under modern slavery laws.
Ike Ekweremadu, who was described by the judge as the “driving force throughout”, was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison.
Dr Obeta was sentenced to 10 years after the judge found he had targeted the potential donor who was young, poor and vulnerable.
Beatrice Ekweremadu was jailed for four years and six months due to her more limited involvement.
Their victim, a poor street trader in Lagos, was brought to the UK to provide a kidney for the Ekweremadus’ daughter.
He fled in fear of his life and walked into a police station exactly a year ago to report what had happened after the Royal Free Hospital called a halt on the private £80,000 procedure.
During a televised sentence hearing, Mr Justice Johnson recognised Ike Ekweremadu’s “substantial fall from grace”.
He described the politician as someone of high office with multiple properties, domestic staff, maids, chefs and drivers, compared with the victim who could not afford a £25 ticket to travel to Abuja.
‘Form of slavery’
Obeta, he said, had lied to doctors and falsely claimed the young potential donor was a cousin of the senator’s daughter who urgently needed a transplant.
The three had left the potential donor facing a “substantial and long term impact on his daily life”, he said.
“People-trafficking across international borders for the harvesting of human organs is a form of slavery,” the judge added.
In a victim’s personal statement, the 21-year-old Nigerian market trader, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court he used to “pray every day” to be given the opportunity to come to the UK to work or study.
He said to “make it happen” he agreed to medical tests in Lagos and meetings with doctors in London, believing they were required for his UK visa during the Covid pandemic.
The 21-year-old said he only realised what was planned when he met doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in London who began discussing a kidney transplant.
He told the court he would not had have agreed to it, adding: “My body is not for sale.”