May 05, (THEWILL) – The Old Bailey Criminal Court, London, has sentenced Nigeria’s former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, to nine years and eight months in prison for plotting to harvest a man’s kidney for his sick daughter, Sonia.
Also sentenced were Ekweremadu’s wife Beatrice, 56, and Obinna Obeta, 50, a doctor, who acted as a middleman in the plot. The court’s verdict on their jail terms was four years six months and ten years respectively. Obeta’s medical licence was also suspended.
The jail sentences are coming amid several pleas for clemency for the Ekweremadus by state actors and prominent individuals including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, ECOWAS, Nigeria’s House of Representatives and Senate, Chairperson of the NIDCOM, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, among others.
Ekweremadu, 60, and his wife were arrested in the UK by London Met Police on June 23, 2022. The Couple was found guilty in March by the Old Bailey Criminal Court of conspiring to traffic a Nigerian young street trader, David Nwaminyi Ukpo, into Britain for a kidney transplant for their 25-year-old daughter, Sonia.
Detective Inspector Esther Richardson from the Metropolitan Police’s Modern Slavery and Exploitation Command, had described the judgment as a “landmark conviction” and thanked the victim for his “bravery” in coming forward.
During the trial, 21-year-old Nwaminyi testified that the Ekweremadus had flown him to Britain to harvest his kidney for their daughter, Sonia, who remains on dialysis with a renal condition, in return for up to £7,000 ($8,800).
Nwaminyi claimed before the court that he was recruited by a doctor working for the politician, and had thought he was coming to the UK to work but only realised it was for a kidney transplant when he was taken to the Royal Free Hospital in 2022.
According to the victim, he fled after doctors at the London hospital told him he would not be a suitable donor following preliminary tests, adding that he eventually walked into a police station last May while “looking for someone to save my life”.
Although Lawyers for the Ekweremadus had insisted he was acting “altruistically”, the embattled Senator had also told jurors led by Justice Jeremy Johnson, that he feared he was being “scammed”.
