By John Ikani
A Nigerian politician, his wife and a doctor have been convicted of organ trafficking under the Modern Slavery Act.
Ike Ekweremadu, a former deputy president of the Nigerian senate, his wife Beatrice, daughter Sonia, and Dr Obinna Obeta, were found guilty of facilitating the travel of a young man to Britain for exploitation, after a six-week trial at the Old Bailey.
The verdict is the first of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act, making it a landmark ruling.
The group was found guilty of criminally conspiring to bring a 21-year-old Lagos street trader to London to exploit him for his kidney.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was offered an illegal reward to become a donor for the senator’s daughter after kidney disease forced her to drop out of a master’s degree in film at Newcastle University.
The prosecutor, Hugh Davies KC, told the court that the Ekweremadus and Obeta treated the man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward.”
The man was falsely presented to a private renal unit at Royal Free hospital in London as Sonia’s cousin in a failed attempt to persuade medics to carry out an £80,000 transplant in February 2022.
For a fee, a medical secretary at the hospital acted as an Igbo translator between the man and the doctors to help try to convince them he was an altruistic donor, the court heard.
Davies accused Ekweremadu of behaving with “entitlement, dishonesty and hypocrisy,” saying that he agreed to reward someone for a kidney for his daughter “from 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.”
Ekweremadu, who owns several properties and had a staff of 80, had helped draw up Nigeria’s laws against organ trafficking.
Obeta claimed that the man was not offered a reward for his kidney and was acting altruistically, while Beatrice denied any knowledge of the alleged conspiracy.
However, WhatsApp messages showed to the court revealed Obeta charged Ekweremadu 4.5m naira (about £8,000) made up of an “agent” and a “donor fee.”
Ekweremadu and Obeta admitted falsely claiming that the man was Sonia’s cousin in his visa application and in documents presented to the hospital.
The judge, Mr Justice Jeremy Johnson, will pass sentence at a later date. This landmark verdict marks the first time anyone has been convicted under the Modern Slavery Act for organ trafficking.
The trial has revealed the extent of criminal exploitation and the dark trade of organ trafficking, which preys on the most vulnerable in society.
