By Ben Kerrigan-
Nigerian Senator Ike Ekweremadu, his wife and a medical middleman have been found guilty of trafficking a man to the United Kingdom to provide a kidney, a statement from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Thursday.
Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, and Nigerian doctor Obinna Obeta, 51, were convicted in a British court of conspiring to exploit the man from Lagos.
The 21-year-old street trader was to be rewarded for donating the organ to Sonia Ekweremadu, in an £80,000 private procedure at London’s Royal Free Hospital.
Dr Obinna Obeta, 50, the medical “middleman”, was also found guilty.
The Ekweremadus’ daughter Sonia, 25, who has a serious kidney condition, wept as she was cleared of the same charge.
The Old Bailey heard the young trader believed he was being brought to the UK to earn money for his family. He was also taken for blood tests in Nigeria, which he believed were for his visa, but these were actually to determine if his kidney was a medically suitable match to Sonia Ekweremadu.
The conspirators’ plan was for the victim to provide a kidney to Sonia for between £2,400 and £7,000 and the promise of work in the UK.
Beatrice and Sonia both burst into tears in the dock and hugged Ike as the unanimous verdicts were announced after 13 hours and 42 minutes.
Mr Justice Johnson ordered reports and adjourned sentencing until May 5.
Senator who represented Nigeria at the COP26 climate change summit, his wife and doctor were all found guilty of kidney trafficking plot.
Ekweremadu has been an elected senator at the Abuja-based parliament since 2003 after moving into politics after years as a lawyer
Ike Ekweremadu who was born in the Enugu state of Nigeria on May 12, 1962 studied law at the University of Nigeria and was called to the Nigerian bar in 1987.
He met Beatrice in 1993 and the cuple married in 1994.
They have four children, Lloyd, 28, a lawyer, Prince, 23, who owns a company in the UK, Sonia, who was doing a masters at the University of Newcastle before her health issues, and Sylvia, 22, a law student.
Ike entered local politics in 1997 and was elected to the senate representing the Enugu State in 2003. He was elected deputy leader in 2007 and served three consecutive terms until 2019. In 2021 he represented Nigeria at the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow.
He told the court he owns 12 properties in Nigeria.
He admitted lying on a visa and to doctors by saying that Sonia and the donor were cousins.
He was arrested on a flight which had landed at Heathrow airport from Istanbul on 21 June 2022.
WhatsApp messages showed to the court revealed Obeta charged Ekweremadu N4.5 million (about £8,000) made up of an “agent fee” and a “donor fee”.
Ekweremadu and Obeta admitted falsely claiming the man was Sonia’s cousin in his visa application and in documents presented to the hospital
The senator is also under investigation in Nigeria for the misappropriation of public funds and money laundering.
He did not run for re-election in the most recent senate elections this year and had been planning to run for Governor of the Engu state before his arrest.
Beatrice Ekweremadu, who gained a PHD in accountancy and worked as an accountant was working as a civil servant in the Nigerian auditor general’s office. She stepped back from her work when Sonia was diagnosed with kidney disease.
She remained living with her husband in Abuja while her children attended boarding schools in the UK but would visit them every two weeks.
Beatrice told the court she was never aware of any money being paid to the donor and she did not understand many of the messages that were sent to her.
After she was arrested on a plane at Heathrow Airport on 21 June, 2022, she spent a month in prison before being released on bail.
Since then she has stayed with Sonia at the family’s property in Willesden.
He studied veterinary medicine before switching to human medicine, which he studied alongside Dr Isaac Ekweremadu, brother to Ike Ekweremadu.
He travelled to the UK with his family and the donor, staying at an address in Hillbeck Close in Southwark.
The transplant went ahead successfully at the Royal Free Hospital in north London on 16 July 2021.
Obeta has remained in the UK, and worked cleaning surfaces during the pandemic. The work was illegal under the terms of his visa.
In September 2021 Obeta was in contact with Isaac Ekweremadu discussing Sonia’s condition.
He agreed to help the family find a donor, and began organising testing potential donors in Nigeria.
He said that when he asked Isaac for a four million-naira ‘donor fee’ he claimed it was to cover the donor’s expenses, although he had not discussed this with the donor.
When the donor was brought to the UK he stayed in Obeta’s house where he claimed he was ‘treated like a slave’.
Obeta was arrested on 12 July, 2022, and has remained in custody in HMP Belmarsh. He said he wanted to stay in the UK and work here as a doctor.
Obeta and Ike were remanded in custody along with Beatrice, who was previously on conditional bail throughout the trial.
Extensive Duties
Denying Beatrice bail, Mr Justice Johnson said: ‘I take into account that Beatrice Ekweremadu has extensive duties to look after her daughter who requires regular dialysis treatment. I am minded that Sonia can live under the care of her brothers and sisters.’
As her parents were taken down to the cells, Sonia continued to weep.
In February of last year, the victim, a street trader, was trafficked to London and “was kept under the direction and financial control of the defendants… The conspirators’ plan was for the victim to provide a kidney to Sonia Ekweremadu in exchange for the suggested amount of either £2,400 or £7,000 and the promise of work in the U.K.,” the prosecutor said in the statement.
The court heard the defendants had attempted to convince doctors at London’s Royal Free Hospital that the victim and Sonia Ekweremadu were cousins in a bid to justify the victim’s temporary travel visa to the U.K.
The case marks the first time defendants have been convicted under the Modern Slavery Act of an organ harvesting conspiracy, donate a kidney, it becomes criminal if money or another material advantage is rewarded.
The victim had undergone a kidney screening, but a consultant doctor had concluded the donor was unsuitable after learning he’d been given no counselling or advice about the risks of the surgery and lacked funds for the lifelong care he would need afterward.
Authorities were made aware of the case when the victim entered a local police station in West London and said he had been trafficked from Nigeria and that someone was trying to transplant his kidney.
Donating a kidney is lawful, but it becomes criminal once money is offered as an inducement .
The prosecution claimed the donor was offered up to £7,000 along with the promise of a better life in the UK.
The donor did not understand until his first appointment with a consultant at the hospital that he was there for a kidney transplant, the Old Bailey heard.
He was said by the consultant to have a “limited understanding” of why he was there and was “visibly relieved” at being told the operation would not go ahead.
It was claimed the man was falsely presented as Sonia’s cousin in a failed bid to persuade medics to carry out the procedure at the Royal Free Hospital.
The donor cannot be identified for legal reasons.
“This was a horrific plot to exploit a vulnerable victim by trafficking him to the UK for the purpose of transplanting his kidney,” said Chief Crown Prosecutor Joanne Jakymec.
“The convicted defendants showed utter disregard for the victim’s welfare, health and wellbeing and used their considerable influence to a high degree of control throughout, with the victim having limited understanding of what was really going on here.”
The couple’s daughter, Sonia, was found not guilty, the CPS said.
The trio will be sentenced at the same court on May 5.
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that the guilty verdicts were the first time someone has been convicted in Britain of human trafficking for the purpose of organ harvesting.
“This conviction sends out a clear message across the world, the UK will not tolerate the international industry in illegal organ removal,” Detective Inspector Esther Richardson, from the Met’s Modern Slavery and Child Exploitation team, said in a statement.
The court heard that Dr Peter Dupont, a consultant at the Royal Free Hospital, concluded the donor was not an appropriate candidate after learning he had no counselling or advice about the risks of surgery and also lacked funds for the lifelong care he would need.
Undeterred, a “corrupt interpreter” was allegedly enlisted for £1,500 to help at the donor’s second hospital meeting with a surgeon.
An investigation was subsequently launched after the young man ran away from London and slept rough for days before walking into a police station more than 20 miles away in Staines, Surrey, crying and in distress.
Both Ike and his wife had denied offering money for the organ plot, but WhatsApp messages showed to the court revealed Obeta charged Ekweremadu N4.5 million (about £8,000) made up of an “agent fee” and a “donor fee”.
Ekweremadu and Obeta admitted falsely claiming the man was Sonia’s cousin in his visa application and in documents presented to the hospital