Photo: Archive/Radio Nigeria
The UK Central Criminal Court, also known as the Old Bailey, has sentenced Ike Ekweremadu, his wife and their doctor, Obinna Obeta to jail.
At a sentencing hearing on Friday, the former Deputy Senate President was sentenced to nine years and eight months, his wife Beatrice got four years and six months imprisonment while Obeta bagged a 10-year prison term.
In March, the Court convicted Ike Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice, and their doctor, Obinna Obeta of organ trafficking under the Modern Slavery Act.
Sonia, the sick daughter of Ekweremadu was cleared of any wrongdoing.
The trio were found guilty of conspiring to exploit a young man, who he facilitated his movement to Britain, for his kidney, in the first case of its kind under the modern slavery laws.
The victim, a street trader from Lagos, was brought to the UK in 2022 to provide a kidney in an £80,000 private transplant at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
The prosecution said the boy was offered up to £7,000 and promised opportunities in the UK for helping, and that he only realised what was going on when he met doctors at the hospital.
UK’s Metropolitan Police had, in June, last year, arrested Senator Ekweremadu and his wife for allegedly conspiring to arrange the travel of a child into the UK in order to harvest his organs.
The prosecutors had alleged that the defendants, Senator Ekweremadu, his wife and doctor had tried to convince medics at the Royal Free by pretending he was the cousin of their daughter, Sonia, who has a debilitating illness, when in fact they were not related.
Writing by Annabel Nwachukwu