Organ Trafficking: A timeline of Senator Ekweremadu’s journey to UK jail
Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice, and a doctor Obinna Obeta were on Friday, May 5, 2033, sentenced at the Central Criminal Court in London after 11 months of trial over organ trafficking.
After arranging for a young Nigerian man to be transported into the UK to procure a kidney for their ill daughter, Sonia, the three were found guilty of organ trafficking.
Here’s a timeline of the Ekweremadu’s organ trafficking trial:
On Monday, June 23, 2022, the London Metropolitan Police announced the arrest and detainment of Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, for allegedly planning to transplant the kidney of a 15-year-old boy who they had transported yo the UK for organ harvesting. Between August 1, 2021, and May 5, 2022, the journey of kidney donor David Nwamini is alleged to have been planned or aided with the intention of subjecting him to exploitation punishable by the UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Senator Ekweremadu and his wife in Uxbridge Court pleaded not guilty to the organ trafficking accusation. They were kept in jail while the case was adjourned to July 7
When the case first came to light, some prominent Nigerians and organisations like Senator Dino Melaye, Senator Smart Adeyemi, Peter Obi and the Ebonyi State Government among others showed their support to the senator and his family while international institutions like the University of Lincoln prevented Ekweremadu from carrying out any task in his capacity as a visiting professor of business and international links.
On June 22, 2022, the age of the victim was verified by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS). According to a statement by Isah Idris, Comptroller General of NIS, the kidney donor in question was 21 years old, not 15 as previously reported.
Contrary to initial reports that the kidney donor was 15 years old, the prosecution acknowledged in the Westminster Magistrates’ Court that the donor is in fact 21 years old.
In July 2022, the Nigerian High Commission in the UK declared support as Ekweremadu and his wife returned to the Westminster Magistrates’ Court for the continuation of his trial. They submit a plea of innocence to the allegations of organ and human trafficking.
Ekweremadu’s wife Beatrice was granted bail by a UK court. However, the judge refused to grant bail to her husband. She was released on strict conditions.By August 4, 2022, the pair was ordered to return to court. The Bexley Magistrates’ Court also arraigned a 50-year-old doctor, Obinna Obeta, for partnering with the Ekweremadus to obtain a kidney for the couple’s daughter.
In February 2023, Ekweremadu, his wife, and their daughter returned to court, where the prosecutor claimed that Sonia was “singing from the same hymn sheet” to fabricate a fake family history connecting the two as cousins and that the victim was instructed to give false answers to doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
On March 23, 2023, Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice, and their doctor, Obinna Obeta, were convicted after being found guilty of organ trafficking at the Old Bailey Criminal Court, leaving Sonia unaffected. On Friday, May 5, Justice Jeremy Johnson sentenced the couple and Obeta.
Institutions like the House of Representatives, the Senate, the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC), etc, and individuals like the former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Chairman/CEO of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa etc, all appealed to the UK government and the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, London, to temper justice with mercy on behalf of the Ekweremadus.
On May 5, 2023, Ekweremadu sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison, his wife Beatrice was given a term of four years and six months in jail, while Obeta was jailed for ten years.
