Following his landmark conviction for plotting to harvest a man’s kidney for his sick daughter, Nigeria’s former deputy Senate president was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison by a UK court on Friday.
In the first case of its kind in the United Kingdom, judge Jeremy Johnson sentenced Ike Ekweremadu, 60, to prison for his role in a “despicable trade” that preyed on the “poverty, misery, and desperation” of vulnerable people.
“People-trafficking across international borders for the harvesting of human organs is a form of slavery,” the judge said as he handed down the sentence at London’s Old Bailey criminal court.
“It treats human beings and their body parts as commodities to be bought and sold,” says one critic.
He went on to say that the sentence was a “substantial fall from grace” for Ekweremadu.
In March, a multimillionaire Nigerian politician was found guilty of conspiring to traffic the young street trader into Britain for a body part.
Beatrice Ekweremadu, 56, and Obinna Obeta, 50, a doctor who acted as a middleman in the plot, were also convicted.
Beatrice Ekweremadu was sentenced to four years and six months in prison, while Obeta was sentenced to ten years.
Sonia Ekweremadus, 25, cried after being cleared of the same charge by jurors after nearly 14 hours of deliberation in March.
She waved to her parents as they were led out of court on Friday. They both remained emotionless as they were sentenced.
In the United Kingdom,
Donating a kidney is legal, but not for monetary or material gain.
It was the first time charges of organ harvesting conspiracy were brought under the UK’s 2015 Modern Slavery Act.
The maximum sentence under the law is life in prison.
Detective Inspector Esther Richardson of the Metropolitan Police’s Modern Slavery and Exploitation Command described the conviction as a “landmark conviction” and praised the victim for his “bravery” in coming forward.
The 21-year-old victim from Lagos, who cannot be named for legal reasons, testified during the weeks-long trial that the Ekweremadus had flown him to Britain to harvest his kidney.
The kidney was reportedly intended for Sonia, who is still on dialysis due to a kidney condition, in exchange for up to £7,000 ($8,800).
The gentleman
said he was recruited by a doctor working for the politician and thought he was coming to the UK to work.
The court heard that when he was taken to London’s Royal Free Hospital last year, he had no idea it was for a kidney transplant.
After preliminary tests revealed that he would not be a suitable donor, he fled and slept on the streets for three days.
According to the court, he eventually walked into a police station last May and stated that he was “looking for someone to save my life.”
Lawyers for the four defendants insisted he was acting “altruistically,” and Ike Ekweremadu told jurors he was afraid of being “scammed.”
Ekweremadu has served as the representative for Enugu West.
Since 2003, he has worked for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party in southeast Nigeria.
Nigerian lawmakers this week petitioned the London court for clemency, arguing that Ekweremadu was a first-time offender who had made significant contributions to West African politics.
He did not run in the recent National Assembly elections because he was detained prior to and during the trial.
The trial judge agreed with prosecutors that he could attempt to flee the United Kingdom. His wife and daughter were both released on conditional bail.
In the United Kingdom, approximately 20 people are diagnosed with kidney failure each day, necessitating long-term dialysis treatment, and approximately 7,000 are waiting for a transplant from a suitable donor.
Informed consent is “a critical component of the organ donation program,” and thorough checks are performed. made to ensure there is “no coercion”, Fiona Loud, policy director at the charity Kidney Care UK, told AFP.
Voluntary donors engage in “an act of great generosity”, she said.
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