UK Court Jails Ekweremadu, Wife, ‘Middleman’ For Kidney Harvesting Plot Despite Requests for Compassion.
Ike Ekweremadu, a former vice president of the Nigerian senate, his wife Beatrice, and a doctor who acted as a “middleman” in the kidney trade, Dr. Obinna Obeta, were all sentenced to prison for arranging the trafficking of a market trader to the United Kingdom for kidney harvesting.
The young man allegedly pretended to be Sonia’s cousin in an unsuccessful attempt to convince medical staff to perform an $80,000 private surgery at London’s Royal Free Hospital. After kidney disease prompted Sonia to withdraw from a master’s degree in film at Newcastle University, the young man was allegedly given an unlawful reward to donate his organs for Sonia. The Modern Slavery Act’s first conviction of its sort resulted in their conviction.
Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, and daughter Sonia, 25, were on trial for allegedly conspiring to transfer David Ukpo from Lagos to Britain in exchange for his organ.
The pair were convicted in March at the Old Bailey along with medical “middleman” Dr. Obeta, 50.
Sonia Ekweremadu, their daughter, who has a severe renal problem, sobbed when she was absolved of the same charge.
Ekweremadu was given a nine-year and eight-month prison sentence; his wife Beatrice received a four-year and six-month prison sentence; and Obeta was given a ten-year prison sentence at a sentencing hearing on Friday.
