‘Donors often give away their kidneys to strangers in Nigeria’

A wealthy family accused of trafficking a penniless market trader from Nigeria to provide a kidney claim ‘cultural differences’ mean donors often give away their organs in Africa.

Nigerian senator Ike Ekweremadu, 60, allegedly illegally transported the 21-year-old man to the UK along with his wife Beatrice, 56, and 25-year-old daughter Sonia.

Ike, Beatrice and Sonia, along with ‘middleman’ Dr Obinna Obeta, 51, all deny conspiracy to arrange the travel of another person with a view to exploitation.

Sonia suffers from a ‘significant and deteriorating kidney condition’ and requires dialysis until she receives a transplant, the court has heard.

They offered the victim 1.2m or 3.5m Naira, the equivalent of £2,400 or £7,000, plus the promise of work and the opportunity to be in the United Kingdom, jurors heard.

The victim, from Lagos in Nigeria, was brought to London in February 2022 and told to pretend to be Sonia’s cousin, it is claimed.

He was at the time selling telephone parts from a cart in public markets for a low number of pounds a day.

Dr Obeta is said to have had a successful kidney donation in 2021 with a Nigerian donor he also claimed was his cousin.

Giving a summary of Obeta’s defence at the start of the eight week trial, Sally Howells, KC, said there were lots of people willing to give a kidney to Obeta because he was an admired doctor.

She said: ‘Due to his life threatening kidney condition Obinna Obeta had a kidney transplant.

‘It was a medical imperative and it was successful. This was a voluntary and completely altruistic donation.

‘Through his work as a doctor of medicine in Nigeria, Obinna Obeta was both respected and admired.

‘He had touched the lives of so many and those people had a great deal of affection for him.

‘It is perhaps therefore of little surprise that [his donor] was not the only donor willing to make the necessary donation for his transplant.

‘He was contacted by Isaac Ekweremadu who was an old classmate from his years at medical school.

‘Isaac asked for advice concerning Sonia Ekweremadu.

‘Obeta was both keen and willing to help. His medical knowledge combined with his own personal experience of coping with the utter misery of kidney disease put him in the unique position to help and to advise.

‘Through his donor he was introduced to [Sonia’s donor].

‘It was his understanding that [Sonia’s donor] wished to make an altruistic donation.

‘At no point did he or anyone else to the best of his knowledge offer or give any form of reward.

‘Of course he accepts he helped to organise travel, why wouldn’t he as he was in that unique position to help.

‘He accepts [the donor] stayed with him as his home, where he was treated as a member of the family as is the cultural norm in his own country.’

Martin Hicks, KC, representing Ike, said: ‘We say the issue in this case is simple, did there exist an agreement to exploit [the donor] in the way that the prosecution allege, and if so who was party to it?

‘Mr Ekweremadu’s case is this, it was in the autumn of 2021 that Dr Obeta and Isaac Ekweremadu spoke with each other and Dr Obeta offered to assist in seeking a prospective donor for Sonia.

‘In Nigerian society there is an expression, everyone is each other’s keeper.

‘The altruistic donation of organs is not regarded there as such a rare event as it is in this country.

‘He will also say he was told that [the donor] had offered altruistically to donate a kidney to Sonia.

‘He denies that he paid directly or indirectly any reward or offered to do so, and throughout he believed he was content to do so without reward.

‘In December 2021 he wrote in support of his visa application. The letter did not contain any lie, and it was much later that he learnt the online application, which he did not see, contained the lie that Sonia and David were related.

‘Ike did not attend any of the hospital visits and he believed that his suitability as a donor was all that was to be determined.

‘By the end of March 2022 he learned Dr Dupont considered him unsuitable as a donor and he expected him to return to Nigeria on 10 April.

‘In April 2022 with the assistance of Dr Issac he continued the family’s search for a suitable donor for his daughter Sonia and that search continues.

‘We question whether [the donor] was exploited as suggested.

‘If there ever was such a scheme we deny that Ike Ekweremadu was a knowing member of it.

‘Keep an open mind and be alive please to the possible cultural differences between this country and that of Nigeria, particularly when it comes to altruistic organ donation.’

Sonia’s lawyer John Femi-Ola, KC, suggested his client was the real victim.

He said: ‘Sonia Ekweremadu suffers from a very severe kidney disease.

‘She receives dialysis treatment three days a week and each session is for four hours.

‘The treatment is for the rest of her life, unless there is a transplant in the future, which now must be much in doubt given the publicity this case has attracted.

‘Her illness is life threatening, life limiting and potentially life ending.

‘It may not surprise you to learn that everyone, including her parents would wish to protect her against the emotional and psychological stress which you may think accompanies such as terrible illness.

‘It is her case she had no awareness of any reward or other material advantage offered to potential donors that came forward to help her and she did not enter knowingly or willingly into any conspiracy.

‘It is her case that her uncle informed her the donor came forward altruistically and no-one in her family gave her any reason to think that what he had told her was inaccurate or untrue.

‘She had no discussion, messaging or texting with anyone in which the question of reward or material advantage was spoken about.

‘The irony in all of this is, just who has become the real victim in all of this?’

Beatrice’s lawyer Anu Mohindru, KC, suggested that as a wife and mother she would not have been kept up to date with any conspiracy.

She said: ‘We say there was no money or reward for [the donor].

‘Beatrice Ekweremadu was not aware of any detail of arrangements other than that this was altruistic

‘You should be alive to cultural differences. They are important in the likelihood of altruistic donations in different cultures.

‘You should also be alive to the different role of a wife and mother in the family in a different culture.

‘The crown refer to them as “the Ekweremadus”, they lump them together. You have to consider the case individually against each person, not as the Ekweremadus.

‘They rely on the fact she is the spouse of the second defendant and mother of the third to prove their theory.

‘No communication outlining payment to a donor was received or forwarded to her.

‘The prosecution say she was kept up to speed, but the level of communication that involves her is tiny.

‘How was she meant to have inferred this knowledge?’

Ike and Beatrice, from Nigeria, Sonia, of Staverton Road, Willesden, and Obeta, of Hillbeck Close, Southwark, deny conspiracy to facilitate the travel of another person with a view to their exploitation.

The trial continues.

Ends