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A prominent Nigerian senator who was found guilty in March of trafficking a man to Britain to harvest one of his kidneys has been sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison by the London’s Old Bailey court, a BBC.com report has said.
His wife, Beatrice Ekweremadu was jailed for four years and six months due to her more limited involvement.
The couple were found guilty in March for trafficking a man to Britain to harvest one of his kidneys for their 25-year-old daughter Sonia, .
The pair and and Dr Obinna Obeta, 50, were convicted previously of conspiring to exploit the man for his kidney. Dr Obeta was sentenced to 10 years after the judge found he had targeted the potential donor who was young, poor and vulnerable.
The 60-year-old former deputy president of the Nigerian senate, his wife; 56, and the said doctor; Dr. Obinna Obeta; 51, are said to have conspired to facilitate the travel of a 21-year-old Lagos street trader to London, with the intent of exploiting him for his kidney.
The 3, through this, sought to get the young man whose name is withheld for legal reasons, to become a donor for the senator’s daughter who was sick, a report by UK’s portal; theguardian.com said.
The senator’s daughter; Sonia Ekweremadu reportedly had a kidney disease which forced her to drop out of Newcastle University where she was pursuing a master’s degree in film.
Breaking down the details of the incident, Prosecutor, Hugh Davies KC told the court that in February 2022, the man was sent to the Royal Free Hospital in London where he was falsely presented to a private renal unit as a cousin of Sonia (the Senator’s daughter) so that they could perform an 80,000 Euro transplant.
The medical secretary at the hospital was then paid to act as an Igbo translator between the parties (the man and the doctors) to help convince them that he was a selfless donor.
The prosecutor further told the court that Ekweremadu, his wife and the doctor, treated the said man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward” and then entered an “emotionally cold commercial transaction” with him.
Prosecutor Davies further noted that the Senator who owns several properties and had a staff of 80, by this act, “agreed to reward someone for a kidney for his daughter – somebody in circumstances of poverty and from whom he distanced himself and made no inquiries, and with whom, for his own political protection, he wanted no direct contact”.
Davies added: “What he agreed to do was not simply expedient in the clinical interests of his daughter, Sonia, it was exploitation, it was criminal. It is no defence to say he acted out of love for his daughter.
Her clinical needs cannot come at the expense of the exploitation of somebody in poverty.”
His actions were against Nigeria’s laws against organ trafficking which he (Ekweremadu) helped draw up, the prosecutor maintained, adding that it sowed “entitlement, dishonesty, and hypocrisy,” the prosecutor told the jury.
After a six-week trial at the Old Bailey, on Thursday, March 23, the jury found them guilty of conspiring to bring the 21-year-old Lagos street trader to London for exploitation and for defying modern slavery legislation.
His daughter however was declared not guilty.
