Nigerian senator accused of plot to harvest street trader’s kidney
Old Bailey hears politician allegedly conspired to bring 21-year-old to London so organ could be removed
A NIGERIAN senator offered a street trader up to £7,000 in exchange for his kidney, the Old Bailey has heard.
Ike Ekweremadu, a senator in the Nigerian parliament, his wife Beatrice, their 25-year-old daughter Sonia and a medical “middleman”, Dr Obinna Obeta, allegedly conspired to exploit a 21-year-old man for his organ.
It is claimed that Sonia Ekweremadu was to have been the recipient of his kidney in a transplant operation at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, north London.
As part of the alleged plot, “elaborate” steps were taken to create the false impression that Sonia and her proposed donor were cousins, it is claimed. The donor, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was allegedly recruited in Lagos, Nigeria, and was making a few pounds a day selling telephone parts from a cart in public markets.
The court heard how Dr Obeta was a former classmate of Sonia’s uncle, Isaac Ekweremadu, with whom he allegedly exchanged messages about screening donors in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. Isaac Ekweremadu is not on trial as he is in Nigeria. When the 21-year-old was found to be a suitable match in October 2021, he was transported to London in February 2022 under the “direction and financial control” of the alleged plotters, the prosecution said.
As part of the deception, the young man was purported to be Sonia’s cousin. The family connection was used to get a temporary visa to travel to the UK, and he was coached to give false answers to doctors at the Royal Free Hospital, the court was told. Under the agreement, the young man was to be paid up to £7,000 in Nigerian currency plus the promise of work and the opportunity to be in the UK, the prosecution alleged.
Opening their trial in central London yesterday, Hugh Davies KC said: “Relative to the wider medical costs of the process – measured in tens of thousands of pounds – which would have been done privately, his reward was to be a small fraction of the whole.”
Sonia has a “significant and deteriorating” kidney condition which could be managed through dialysis but cured with a transplant, the court heard.
While it is lawful for someone to donate a kidney, it is illegal to reward someone for doing so.
The three Ekweremadus, from Willesden Green, northwest London, and Obeta, 50, from Southwark, deny conspiring to arrange or facilitate the travel of the young man with a view to exploitation between Aug 1 2021 and May 5 2022. The trial continues.