The 60-year-old senator and his wife Beatrice, as well as doctor Obinna Obeta, who acted as a “go-between”, were found guilty of taking a poor young Nigerian man to the UK to have a kidney removed.
The couple’s daughter, Sonia, 25, who was to receive the organ, also went to court but was eventually acquitted.
London criminal judge Jeremy Johnson on Friday criticized the Nigerian politician for participating in a “despicable trade” preying on the “poverty, misery and desperation” of vulnerable people and sentenced him to nine years and eight months in prison.
The woman, Beatrice Ekweremadu, was sentenced to four years and six months in prison for her more limited involvement.
The events took place between August 1, 2021 and May 5, 2022.
After traveling to London with the promise of £7,000 and the opportunity to live and work in the UK, the victim – a 21-year-old street vendor from Lagos – realized he had been tricked after being subjected to medical examinations at a hospital in North West London.
The young Nigerian refused to intervene in May 2022 and fled to contact the police, “looking for someone to save his life,” he explained at trial.
The head of the London police’s modern slavery unit, Ester Richardson, called the conviction “significant” and praised the victim’s courage.
In the end, the transplant did not take place and the Ekweremadu family was arrested at London Heathrow Airport in June 2022. Ike has been imprisoned ever since because of the risk of fleeing the UK.
The London trial was widely imitated in Nigeria, where the Ekweremadu family wields “power and influence”. Ekweremadu will remain an official member of parliament until the new senate, elected earlier this year, takes office.
The senator from Abuja, elected in 2003, from the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was unable to participate in the last election because he was already in protective custody.
In a police statement, prosecutor Joanne Jakymec criticized the defendants’ “utter disregard for the welfare and health of the victim”, noting that Ekweremadu used her “considerable influence” to try to take advantage of a victim who only an “understanding limits a view of what actually happened”.
Source: DN
