Former Deputy Senate President of Nigeria, Ike Ekweremadu, has been sentenced to nine years and eight months imprisonment for plotting to harvest a man’s kidney, along with his wife, Beatrice, who was sentenced to four years and six months imprisonment. A medical doctor, Dr Obinna Obeta, was also sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. They were found guilty of conspiring to arrange the travel of a young man with the intention of exploiting him for his body part. In a letter addressed to the court, the victim revealed his shock upon discovering the reason for the trip was to harvest his organs to give to Ekweremadu’s daughter, Sonia. He said he was approached with an opportunity to work in the UK, something he had “always dreamed of but never thought would happen.” The victim said he was lured to the United Kingdom under the pretense of job opportunity in the country. He added that he could not return to Nigeria because he worries for his safety. The victim claimed someone visited his father in Nigeria and asked him to get the victim, his son, to drop the case. “He [Dr Obinna Obeta] did not tell me he brought me here for this reason, he did not tell me anything about this. I would have not agreed to any of this, my body is not for sale,” the victim said. He told the police he did not want to claim compensation from the “bad people” as it would be “cursed and bad luck”. The victim also revealed his humble background in a Lagos village where he is the oldest of seven siblings living in a home without electricity or running water. He was forced to become a street trader full time, moving to the city to provide for his family when his father fell ill with a heart problem. He sold mobile phone accessories from a wheelbarrow making at most £7 a day and as little as 50p. The victim’s impact statement was read in court on Friday. He claimed his body parts were “not for sale”, and he would not have agreed to the trip if he had known the true reason for it. The victim’s safety concerns remain, as he fears for his life if he were to return to Nigeria.
