{"id":103821,"date":"2023-03-23T13:42:15","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T12:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=103821"},"modified":"2023-03-23T13:42:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T12:42:15","slug":"ekweremadu-wife-and-a-doctor-guilty-of-organ-trafficking-to-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/ekweremadu-wife-and-a-doctor-guilty-of-organ-trafficking-to-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Ekweremadu, wife, and a doctor guilty of organ trafficking to UK"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">A senior Nigerian politician, his wife, and a doctor have been convicted of organ trafficking, in the first verdict of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div dir=\"auto\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nIke Ekweremadu, 60, a former deputy president of the Nigerian senate, his wife, Beatrice, 56, and Dr Obinna Obeta, 51, were found guilty of facilitating the travel of a young man to Britain with a view to his exploitation after a six-week trial at the Old Bailey.<\/p>\n<p>They criminally conspired to bring the 21-year-old Lagos street trader to London to exploit him for his kidney, the jury found.<\/p>\n<p>Their daughter Sonia Ekweremadu was found not guilty.<\/p>\n<p>The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been offered an illegal reward to become a donor for the senator\u2019s daughter after kidney disease forced her to drop out of a master\u2019s degree in film at Newcastle University, the court heard. Sonia Ekweremadu was found not guilty.<\/p>\n<p>In February 2022 the man was falsely presented to a private renal unit at Royal Free hospital in London as Sonia\u2019s cousin in a failed attempt to persuade medics to carry out an \u00a380,000 transplant. For a fee, a medical secretary at the hospital acted as an Igbo translator between the man and the doctors to help try to convince them he was an altruistic donor, the court heard.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecutor Hugh Davies KC told the court the Ekweremadus and Obeta had treated the man and other potential donors as \u201cdisposable assets \u2013 spare parts for reward\u201d. He said they entered an \u201cemotionally cold commercial transaction\u201d with the man.<\/p>\n<p>The behaviour of Ekweremadu, a successful lawyer and founder of an anti-poverty charity who helped draw up Nigeria\u2019s laws against organ trafficking, showed \u201centitlement, dishonesty and hypocrisy\u201d, Davies told the jury.<\/p>\n<p>He said Ekweremadu, who owns several properties and had a staff of 80, \u201cagreed to reward someone for a kidney for his daughter \u2013 somebody in circumstances of poverty and from whom he distanced himself and made no inquiries, and with whom, for his own political protection, he wanted no direct contact\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Davies added: \u201cWhat he agreed to do was not simply expedient in the clinical interests of his daughter, Sonia, it was exploitation, it was criminal. It is no defence to say he acted out of love for his daughter. Her clinical needs cannot come at the expense of the exploitation of somebody in poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ekweremadu, who denied the charge, told the court he was the victim of a scam. Obeta, who also denied the charge, claimed the man was not offered a reward for his kidney and was acting altruistically. Beatrice denied any knowledge of the alleged conspiracy. Sonia did not give evidence.<\/p>\n<p>WhatsApp messages showed to the court revealed Obeta charged Ekweremadu 4.5m naira (about \u00a38,000) made up of an \u201cagent fee\u201d and a \u201cdonor fee\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Ekweremadu and Obeta admitted falsely claiming the man was Sonia\u2019s cousin in his visa application and in documents presented to the hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Davies said Ekweremadu ignored medical advice to find a donor for his daughter among genuine family members. He said: \u201cAt no point in time was there ever any intention for a family member close, medium or distant to do what could be paid for from a pool of donors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The judge, Mr Justice Jeremy Johnson, will pass sentence on 5 May.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A senior Nigerian politician, his wife, and a doctor have been convicted of organ trafficking, in the first verdict of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act. Ike Ekweremadu, 60,&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ekweremadu, wife, and a doctor guilty of organ trafficking to UK - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/ekweremadu-wife-and-a-doctor-guilty-of-organ-trafficking-to-uk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ekweremadu, wife, and a doctor guilty of organ trafficking to UK - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A senior Nigerian politician, his wife, and a doctor have been convicted of organ trafficking, in the first verdict of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act. 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