Doctor refused to transplant kidney when donor said he had not seen recipient for 13 years

A doctor refused to accept a kidney for a Nigerian senator’s daughter when the would-be donor said he had not seen her for 13 years, a court heard.

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.

Sonia suffers from a ‘significant and deteriorating kidney condition’ and requires dialysis until she receives a transplant.

They allegedly offered the donor 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.

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.

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 pittance.

Sonia’s doctor at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, Dr Peter Dupont, has told the court Sonia was mainly non-responsive to treatment.

When he was first told about the prospective donor he told Sonia the Human Tissue Authority would want to know the circumstances he came forward as a donor given he was not a close relative.

He added they would need to see proof of the relationship and told her it was not at all certain the donation would proceed.

The family are then said to have staged photographs with Sonia and the donor.

Dr Dupont told the court: ‘Cousin is a difficult relationship to prove sometimes because we may not share genetic similarities even with a first cousin.

‘In the UK you can probably get hold of birth certificates which show the shared grandparents but in a less developed part of the world that documentation may be difficult to find or may not exist.

Prosecutor Hugh Davies asked Dr Dupont about his first meeting with the donor on 22 February 2022.

Dr Dupont said: ‘He attended accompanied by Sonia and her family. I went to say hello to him and it was obvious his English was pretty limited so I knew I was going to need an interpreter.

‘A family member accompanying him stepped up and said he would be very happy to translate.

‘I said it would have to be an independent translator not somebody associated with the family, and scheduled for another date.’

At the next meeting a lgbo interpreter named Evelyn Agbasonu was present. She is said to have been offered £1,500 by the Ekweremadus to help them fool the doctor.

Dr Dupont said: ‘I was thinking is there a reason he’s coming forward rather than an aunt or uncle, why is someone this age coming forward?

‘Sonia’s disease was not genetic so her close family members would not be prohibited from donation.’

The court previously heard that Sonia has four siblings.

In messages sent to the donor for him to memorise to fool the doctor, the family had said doctors had told them the problem was genetic so her siblings could not donate, jurors have heard.

‘His words were very limited, he didn’t have an understanding of what he was signing up for,’ the doctor said.

‘You want to hear that they have a mature attitude, a thorough understanding of what they’re undertaking.

‘You need to see that they have an understandable motivation to help the prospective recipient.

‘They’re likely to have a close relationship even if they aren’t blood relatives. I wasn’t really hearing that from this young man.

‘He said his mother and Sonia’s mother were sisters. He said he’d heard from his aunt, Sonia’s mother, that she needed a transplant.

‘I asked him when he had last seen Sonia and it seemed to be some considerable time ago.

‘He said he met her in Lagos when he was aged eight, but hadn’t seen her in the intervening period.

‘I asked him did he have a discussion with Sonia about this offer to donate, clearly a very generous thing to do, did he call her up to offer and what was her reaction?

‘He said he hadn’t spoken to her directly, he’d been through his aunt and they hadn’t had much of a conversation since his offer to donate.

‘That struck me as being a little uncommon.

‘I asked whether he was aware if anyone else in the family had been tested, to satisfy my curiosity about why he was at the head of the queue, but he said he wasn’t aware.

‘It didn’t seem to have occurred to him to ask the question.

‘He spoke very little, was very subdued and he wasn’t able to articulate what had motivated him to come forward.

‘One consideration for any prospective donor who is coming from a less developed part of the world is whether they’re going to be able to access the ongoing care they need.

‘He said he was studying for GCSEs. If he’s a student then he’s not got an income so I needed to think about what his family’s means were, and he said they were small town traders in a market in Nigeria.’

‘Did you ask him about financial inducement?’ Mr Davies asked.

‘Yes we usually ask all our donors whether any form of inducement such as employment or money had been offered.

‘We also try to ensure nobody is under emotional pressure to donate which often happens within families if only one person is able to donate.

‘A person is likely to say they’re not under any pressure so we’re looking for non-verbal cues and evidence of maturity.

‘Because of the costs involved in private transplantation we’re dealing with very wealthy individuals so there is very often a wealth disparity between the recipient family and the donor.

‘You don’t want to discriminate against people because they’re well off but it does create a risk of financial coercion.

‘My assessment for this donation going ahead was a straight no.

‘On a clinical basis I was concerned about age, the long term risks are higher for a younger person.

‘His ethnic background comes with its own additional level of long term risk.

‘I was worried about the nature of his relationship with the recipient, it seemed very distant.

‘They hadn’t seen each other in years, weren’t in close contact, had barely spoken since the offer to donate.

‘If my cousin had made an offer of that magnitude I would be overwhelmingly grateful and in constant contact.’

After the transplant did not go ahead the donor turned up at Staines police station after walking for three days and claimed he was the victim of trafficking.

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.

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