A court in United Kingdom (UK) has sentenced former Nigerian Deputy Senate President, Mr. Ike Ekweremadu, to nine years and eight months in prison for an organ trafficking plot, in a conviction that was the first verdict of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act (MSA).
The court also sentenced his wife, Beatrice, to four years six months while the medical doctor who acted as a ‘middleman’ in the plot, Dr Obinna Obeta, was sentenced to 10 years and his medical licence was also suspended.
The jury had in March 2023, found that they criminally conspired to bring a 21-year-old Lagos street trader to London to exploit him for his kidney.
The young man was said to have been falsely presented as Sonia’s cousin in a failed bid to persuade doctors to carry out an £80,000 private procedure at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
He was said to have been offered an illegal reward to become a donor for Sonia after kidney disease forced her to drop out of a master’s degree in film at Newcastle University.