Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice, and their doctor Obinna Obeta have been sentenced by a UK court for organ harvesting.
Ekweremadu was sentenced to nine years and eight months, while Beatrice to four years and six months, and Obeta to 10 years in prison, with his medical license withdrawn.
The court found them guilty of violating UK modern slavery legislation by engaging in organ harvesting and trafficking. They had arranged the travel of David Ukpo, a young man from Lagos, to donate his kidney to Ekweremadu’s daughter Sonia.
However, Ukpo alerted the UK hospital, claiming he was unaware of the purpose of his travel. The Ekweremadus and Obeta pleaded not guilty, but the prosecutor argued that they treated donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward.”
Ike Ekweremadu was arrested by London Metropolitan Police following intelligence report.
Meanwhile, a former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo had, in an emotional letter to the government of the United Kingdom recently pleaded for leniency in jailing the lawmaker.
Similarly, Nigerian lawmakers had pleaded for clemency on behalf of Ekweremadu, yet the UK government prescribed Jail term for him strictly according to the laws of the land.
