Ike Ekweremadu, former President of Nigeria’s Senate, has been arrested along with his wife Beatrice and doctor Obinna Obeta on international organ trafficking charges.
What happened
- The trio would have facilitated a man’s journey to London to perform a kidney transplant for Sonia Ekweremadu, the former senator’s daughter who is suffering from kidney dysfunction. If the transplant went ahead, he would be rewarded in cash.
- £80,000 (about BRL 520,000) would have been offered to doctors at a London hospital to perform the operation. The lying pretext was that the man was Sonja’s cousin and would voluntarily donate the organ. The operation was not accepted and the alleged donor denounced the story in English court.
- Ekweremadu and Obeta say they are coup victims and that the organ is being donated out of altruism. Both deny the allegations, while Beatrice says she knew nothing. Sonia, to whom the kidney would have been addressed, was found not guilty.
According to The Guardian, the man who was taken to London is 21 and a street vendor in Lagos, the Nigerian capital. His identity has not been disclosed.
WhatsApp messages between Obeta and Ekweremadu show that the doctor would have asked the politician for 4.5 million naira (about 50,000 reais) to take part in the trial.
The case’s prosecutor, Hugh Davies, stated: “What Ekweremadu agreed to was exploitative, it was criminal. He did not act in his daughter’s defense. His medical needs cannot be met at the expense of exploiting someone in poverty.”
The judge in the case will rule on the penalties on May 5.