‘How Ekweremadu plotted to harvest kidney from street trader’
By Chukwudi Nwabuko in London
The Old Bailey in London has learned that Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife planned to transport a destitute Nigerian street vendor to the United Kingdom so they could remove his kidney.
The jury was informed that Ike and Beatrice Ekweremadu wanted the organ for their ill 25-year-old daughter Sonia.
The three family members are accused, along with medical “middleman” Dr. Obinna Obeta, of colluding to take advantage of the 21-year-old trader by promising him up to £7,000 and a better life, according to the London Metro newspaper.
According to reports made to the Old Bailey, they pretended that the young man, who in Lagos sold telephone parts, was Sonia’s nephew and was prepared to donate his kidney for free in accordance with UK legislation.
According to the http://metro.co.ukLondon Metro newspaper, the three family members are accused along with medical ‘middleman’ Dr Obinna Obeta of conspiring to exploit the 21-year old trader by promising him up to £7,000 and a better life.
He was given a temporary visa and coached to lie to doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in London, said prosecutor Hugh Davies (KC).
But the trader only realised at his first appointment with a consultant that he was there for a transplant and was ‘visibly relieved’ when told it would not go ahead, it was claimed.
Sonia who suffers from significant and deteriorating kidney condition, remains on dialysis.
Mr Davies told the jury that the Ekweremadu’s were ‘significant figures’ in Nigeria, adding ‘his status and influence had produced a significant degree of wealth’. ‘They had international connections. There are, however, certain things that money and status cannot guarantee in any family and they include good health.’
Ekweremadu and Obeta deny conspiracy between Aiugust 2021 and May last year to exploit the trader. The trial continues.
–Additional report from London Metro
