Nigerian Senator Ike Ekweremadu will go on trial in the UK in January for attempting to have a young man’s kidney removed for his daughter, British justice said on Monday.
Ike Ekweremadu, 60, a People’s Democratic Party (PDP, opposition) senator and former deputy leader of the Senate, is in custody awaiting trial.
He and his wife Beatrice Nwanneka Ekweremadu, 56, are accused of bringing a 21-year-old Nigerian man to the UK to have his kidney removed to transplant to their daughter Sonia, 25.
The man reportedly refused to consent to the procedure after undergoing a medical at a north-west London hospital and notified police.
The Ekweremadu family was arrested at Heathrow Airport in London in June. Another man, Obinna Obeta, a 50-year-old doctor from south London, was also charged and has been in custody ever since.
Beatrice and Sonia Ekweremadu have been released on bail.
The four suspects are formally charged with conspiracy to organize a third party’s trip with a view to their exploitation for facts dating back between August 1, 2021 and May 5, 2022.
The trial, originally scheduled to begin next May, has been brought forward to January 31, 2023 by Judge Mark Lucraft after a preliminary hearing on Monday at the Old Bailey Court in the British capital.
Another pre-trial hearing is scheduled for December 16.