Ike Ekweremadu, Wife Sentenced To Jail In UK

Nigeria’s former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has been sentenced to jail in the United Kingdom for nine years, eight months.

The 60-year-old Nigerian senator, his wife, and a medical doctor, Obinna Obeta were found guilty of conspiring to bring a market trader in Lagos to the UK for the purpose of harvesting his kidney for the use of the politician’s 25-year-old daughter, Sonia.

Ekweremadu’s wife Beatrice, 56, was handed 4 years, six months jail term, while the doctor involved in the case of organ trafficking got a 10-year jail term with his medical licence suspended.

At a sentencing hearing on Friday, Justice Jeremy Johnson told the defendants: “In each of your cases the offence you committed is so serious that neither a fine nor a community sentence can be justified.

“People-trafficking of human organs is a form of slavery.

“It treats human beings and their body parts as commodities to be bought and sold.

“It is a trade that preys on poverty, misery and desperation.”

The Ekweremadu’s case marked the first time defendants have been convicted under the Modern Slavery Act for organ harvesting.

Recall that Ekweremadu and his family were arrested by the London Metropolitan Police in June 2022 and subsequently arraigned in court for conspiring to bring the victim to London to exploit him for his kidney.

During the trial, Ekweremadu and his wife apologized for claiming that the donor was a relative.

Hugh Davies, the prosecutor, told the court the Ekweremadus and Obeta had treated the man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward”.

They were found guilty in March 2023 and sentenced on May 5, 2023.