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Ike Ekweremadu, a Nigerian senator, was found guilty on Thursday in a London court for attempting to have a young man’s kidney removed last year so that his daughter could receive a transplant.
The 60-year-old senator was also found guilty of conspiring to bring the young man from Lagos to the UK for kidney removal, along with his wife Beatrice, 56, and Obinna Obeta, 50, a doctor who served as a go-between.
Daughter Sonia, 25, of the couple, was exonerated.
At the start of the trial that generated controversy in Nigeria, the powerful senator, a former deputy speaker of the Nigerian Senate, and his wife, as well as their daughter and the doctor, entered not guilty pleas.
On May 5, the sentences will be announced. In accordance with the Modern Slavery Act, they risk a life sentence. They were formally accused of conspiring to set up a third party’s travel for the purpose of exploitation under the Act.
According to the prosecution, the victim was a street vendor in Lagos who was promised up to £7,000 (€7,800) in exchange for working and staying in the UK. The defendants pretended that the victim was Sonia’s cousin.
In the UK, it is acceptable to donate a kidney voluntarily, but it is prohibited to do so in exchange for money or other tangible “reward”.
The young man testified during the trial that he initially believed he had been brought to the UK to work and only realized he was getting an organ transplant after being confronted by British doctors.
Then, “looking for someone to save (his) life,” he went to the police. The procedure was not carried out.
Ike Ekweremadu, who won a seat in a south-eastern Nigerian constituency for the opposition People’s Democratic Party, was unable to run in the most recent elections because he was being held in pre-trial custody, according to the prosecution, who cited flight risks.
Prosecutor Joanne Jakymec blasted a “appalling plot to exploit a vulnerable victim” in a police statement following the conviction.
She criticized the defendants’ “total disregard for the victim’s welfare and health,” claiming they tried to get their way with a victim who had “limited understanding of what was actually happening” by using their “considerable influence.”
The victim’s courage in coming forward was praised by Esther Richardson of the London Police Modern Slavery Unit, who called the decision “significant.”
