Nigerian 3-term Deputy President Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, wife, doctor jailed in UK

A former three-term Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, 60, was on Friday sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison by a Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, UK after being found guilty of organ trafficking.

The court also sentenced Ekweremadu’s wife, Beatrice, to four years and six months, and doctor who allegedly colluded with them, Obinna Obeta, 56, to 10 years in prison.

The couple was arrested on Thursday, June 23rd, 2022, for conspiring to bring a 21-year-old Nigerian and flew him to the UK to harvest his kidney for their sick daughter.

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Sonia Ekweremadu’s 25-year-old daughter of the senator was not convicted after presenting the court with a medical report claiming she is unfit for trial. 

NRTC gathered that on March 23, the jury pronounced a guilty verdict on the senator, his wife, and Obinna Obeta, a doctor who acted as the middleman that they conspired to bring the 21-year-old at the center of the matter to London to exploit him for his kidney.

The verdict was said to have been the first of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 of the UK.

ALSO READ: Video: Ike Ekweremadu, wife appears in London court

Ekweremadu, his wife, and the doctor were alleged to have presented the 21-year-old donor as the cousin of their daughter in an attempt to convince doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in London to perform an £80,000 transplant on the donor.

The prosecutor, Hugh Davies, told the court during the trial that the Ekweremadu’s and Obeta had treated the man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward”.

He further stated that the convicted couple entered an “emotionally cold commercial transaction” with the 21-year-old, offering him up to £7,000 in reward.

They denied having committed all allegations level against them but apologized for claiming that the donor was a relative while the doctor, Obeta, said the man was not offered a reward for his kidney.

NRTC found out that former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote to the UK court during the court proceedings for leniency.

In the same vein, the House of Representatives appealed to the court to “temper justice with mercy”, calling on the Federal Government to take diplomatic steps to intervene in his trial. 

The House of Representatives stated that there is a need for government intervention because of the predicaments of Ekweremadu’s ailing daughter, who needs financial support and parental love from her parents to scale through her dire health challenge.

Also, the Economic Community of West African States Parliament in a letter by the Speaker of the ECOWAS parliament, Dr Sidie Mohamed Tunis, appealed for leniency, adding that it believed lessons had been learned by everybody.

Meanwhile, the victim in a  personal statement told the court he prayed everyday to be allowed to work and study in the UK, and to make it happen, he agreed to medical tests in Lagos and meetings with doctors in London, believing that they were required for his UK visa during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 21-year-old said he only realized what was planned when he met doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in London who began discussing a kidney transplant, saying he would not have agreed to it because his body was ‘not for sale’.

According to a report, the victim is now being helped by a charity in the UK.

In an interview with British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Sonia, the daughter of the embattled former deputy senate president said she felt guilty her parents were jailed because of her.

She said her parents were jailed while looking for ways to find a solution to her health condition.

Meanwhile, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization Ohanaeze Ndigbo where Ekweremadu came from knocked the Federal Government for not helping him before he was jailed.

Reacting to the UK court’s judgment in a statement signed by the spokesperson for Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, said the Federal Government did nothing to help Ekweremadu and did not treat him like someone who has served the country.

He said Igbo leaders would visit Ekweremadu soon, adding that the former lawmaker would come out of the experience ‘stronger and better.

“Before now, although not as Ohanaeze, we have visited him in prison. We still intend to do so even as he begins his sentence. It is shocking and painful that an illustrious Igbo man of that caliber will be involved in this kind of sentencing. However, there is nothing we can do about it for now.

“But I believe Ekweremadu will come out stronger and better. He has always been a strong and courageous man. Ohanaeze prays he comes out healthy to face the world again.”