Nigerian senator and his wife are found guilty of trafficking market trader to the UK to provide a kidney for their daughter
A wealthy Nigerian politician, his wife and a medical ‘middleman’ were today all found guilty of an organ-harvesting plot involving a London NHS hospital.
In the first case of its kind in the UK, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, and Dr Obinna Obeta, 50, were convicted at the Old Bailey of conspiring to exploit a young man from Lagos for his body part.
The Ekweremadus’ daughter Sonia, 25, who was to receive a kidney from the trafficking victim, wept as she was cleared of the same charge this morning.
The victim, a 21-year-old street trader from Lagos, was brought to the UK last year to provide a kidney to Sonia in an £80,000 private transplant at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
Nigerian senator Ike Ekweremadu, 60, and his wife Beatrice Ekweremadu, 56, have been convicted at the the Old Bailey of illegally transporting a man to the UK in February 2022 to provide a kidney for their 25-year-old daughter Sonia
Sonia (pictured) suffers from a ‘significant and deteriorating kidney condition’ and requires dialysis until she receives a transplant, the court has heard. She was cleared of taking part in the plot today
The family arranged the trafficking of the man with the help of ‘middleman’ Obinna Obeta (pictured), a Nigerian doctor who also had a transplant in the UK
The victim, right, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was pictured smiling and sharing a meal with Sonia Ekweremadu (pictured left) – who was meant to be getting his kidney
