Nigerian politician and his wife guilty of buying a man’s kidney for their sick daughter

A wealthy Nigerian senator who trafficked a penniless market trader to the UK to harvest a kidney for his seriously ill daughter is facing jail in the first case of its kind.

Ike Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, and ‘middleman’ Dr Obinna Obeta, 51, transported the 21-year-old man to the UK to provide a kidney for 25-year-old Sonia Ekweremadu.

The victim claimed he was ‘treated like a slave’ when brought to the UK from Lagos and told to pretend to be Sonia’s cousin to get the transplant approved.

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

Ike, Beatrice and Dr Obeta, all denied conspiracy to arrange the travel of another person with a view to exploitation but they were unanimously convicted by an Old Bailey jury today (thurs).

Sonia was cleared of the charge.

They are the first people to be convicted of organ trafficking under the Modern Slavery Act, 2015.

Mr Justice Johnson said he will pass sentence on 5 May.

Prosecutor Hugh Davies told the court after the verdicts were announced that this was ‘the first case of its kind in this country’.

The wealthy family 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 live in the UK.

Obeta helped the family test potential donors in Nigeria before they found the victim, who worked selling mobile phone parts from a wheelbarrow in a public market.

Dr Obeta had undergone his own successful kidney transplant with a donor he found in Nigeria and claimed was his cousin.

The operation was to take place at the Royal Free hospital in Hampstead but doctors became suspicious and refused to carry out the proceedure.

The victim escaped from Dr Obeta’s home, where he had been made to complete household chores without pay.

He slept on the streets for three days before arriving at Staines police station, 21 miles from Obeta’s home, with just £28 in his pocket claiming he was the victim of human trafficking.

The defendants all claimed they believed the donor wanted to give his kidney away as an act of charity.

Ike, who owns 12 properties in Nigeria, was part of a committee overseeing human rights when he trafficked the donor to the UK, and has publicly campaigned on helping those in poverty.

His brother Isaac Ekweremadu is also accused of involvement in the plot but remains in Nigeria.

An NHS consultant named Dr Chris Agbo, who runs a health tourism company called Vintage Health Limited, which assisted in the transplant, and an Igbo interpreter at the Royal Free Hospital named Evelyn Agbasonu are also under investigation.

In July 2021 Dr Obeta brought a donor from Nigeria to the UK for his own kidney transplant, which went ahead at the Royal Free.

He signed an affidavit swearing the donor was his cousin, which he admitted in court was a lie. His donor remains in the UK.

Ekweremadu claimed there were many people willing to donate a kidney to him because he had set up a hospital to help people in his community.

Dr Obeta attended medical school with Isaac, also known as Diwe, and he told him about Sonia’s condition.

Dr Obeta began to help the family test potential donors in Nigeria.

Mr Davies said these were ‘picked from a pool of impoverished Nigerians’.

It was Obeta’s donor who put him in contact with the man who would be brought to the UK to provide a kidney for Sonia.

The victim was born in a remote Nigerian village and does not know his own age, but is approximately 21.

He moved to Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city, when he was 15 years old to work on his uncle’s market stall.

He eventually began his own business selling mobile phone accessories from a wheelbarrow in a public market, living with two friends in one room.

Obeta controlled him financially while he travelled from Lagos to Abuja for tests giving him a ‘drip-feed’ of money for food, travel and accommodation.

The family used Obeta to keep a step away from the ‘dirty work’ of what was ‘plainly not an altruistic organ donation’.

Obeta had sent a text to a helper saying ‘they are the Ekweremadus and they will distance themselves.’

Isaac sent a text to Ike telling him ‘donor’s usually charge between 3m and 7m depending on negotiation’ and referenced a ‘donor fee’.

Dr Obeta insisted this money was ‘compensation’ not ‘a reward.’

Ike said that Dr Obeta had been attempting to scam him, and wanted to keep the ‘donor fee’ for himself.

He paid the money even though he knew he was being scammed because he did not want his daughter to die, he claimed.

The Home Office received a Visa application saying the victim wanted to travel to the UK to provide a kidney to his ‘closest cousin’ Sonia Ekweremadu on 6 January 2022. Ike wrote a supporting letter.

Vintage Health Limited assisted with both Obeta and Sonia’s transplants and the family claimed it was them who advised them to pretend the donor was Sonia’s cousin to expedite the process.

The Ekweremadus argued altruistic donations are more common in Nigeria due to cultural differences, and they needed to pretend to be related to persuade the UK authorities they were not lying.

The private transplant, which would have cost the family £80,000, needed approval by the Human Tissue Authority.

When the victim met with consultant Dr Peter Dupont at the Royal Free Hospital, the family are said to have enlisted the help of interpreter Ms Agbasonu who accepted £1,500 to manipulate a second meeting.

They contrived a photograph of Sonia and the donor smiling together to make the relationship more believable.

On 29 March 2022 the family were informed the transplant would not be going ahead.

The donor was meant to return to Nigeria but did not do so.

He turned up at Staines police station on 5 May with £27.90, a pair of AirPods and a mobile phone given to him by Dr Obeta.

He said he had been kept in Obeta’s home where was used as a ‘house boy’ for household chores and treated ‘like a slave’.

He said Obeta took him to other homes to clean without pay, that he slept in his parlour and would eat one meal a day.

Obeta claimed he kept him in his home to monitor his welfare.

The donor claims he did not know he was being brought to the UK to provide a kidney, and thought Obeta was ‘sent from God’ to help him get work in the country to provide for his family in Nigeria.

He claimed he was shocked when Dr Dupont told him he was here for a kidney transplant.

The donor admitted lying to police by telling them he was 15, that he had been living on the streets of Lagos begging for money and that his parents had died when he was very young.

Following the donor’s rejection the family began to review others donors for a potential transplant in Turkey, the court heard.

When sent photos of potential donors Sonia joked ‘the dark one looks better, the light one looks like he might run away.’

Ike and Beatrice were arrested on 21 June 2022 on a plane which had landed at Heathrow Airport from Istanbul.

Mr Davies earlier told the jury: ‘Body parts are not car parts. They simply cannot be traded for reward.

‘Supply of human body parts for reward is human exploitation in all circumstances.

‘Most parents, whether powerful or not in society, will do whatever is necessary to alleviate suffering in their child. The Ekweremadu’s were no different.

‘Those providing organs for reward are likely to come from the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society.

‘As such, the law must protect them from themselves, it must protect them from those with greater power who want their body parts.’

Ike had told the court it was not possible for the donor to be poor or vulnerable because he lived in Lagos ‘the land of opportunity for Nigerians,’ and those selling from a wheelbarrow on the city could also own cars and houses due to the amount of footfall.

Beatrice, an accountant, cried in the witness box as she said the accusations had destroyed her family’s good name.

Cross examining her prosecutor Catherine Pattison said: ‘Despite the public displays of fighting poverty you’ve given to this jury when it really mattered, when you had the choice, you chose to exploit the poor, exploit the vulnerable, because you could.

‘You had the money, the privileges, the connections and means and thought you could simply get away with it.’

Beatrice replied: ‘That’s not true because since this thing has gone public so many people have lined up to donate.

‘In my country women no matter how high you are in your career, no matter how wealthy you are in your business, you are still under your husband.

‘I am lucky to have a good one who can take good decisions.

‘My husband is a good man and I trust his decisions. I did not bring [the donor] to the UK to exploit him.’

Ike and Beatrice, from Nigeria, and Obeta, of Hillbeck Close, Southwark, denied but were convicted of conspiracy to facilitate the travel of another person with a view to their exploitation.

Sonia, of Staverton Road, Willesden, was cleared of the charge.

They will be sentenced on 5 May.

Beatrice and Sonia both burst into tears in the dock and hugged Ike as the unanimous verdicts were announced after 13 hours and 42 minutes.

Mr Justice Johnson ordered reports and adjourned sentence until 5 May.

Obeta and Ike were remanded in custody along with Beatrice, who was previously on conditional bail throughout the trial.

Remanding Beatrice in custody, Mr Justice Johnson said: ‘I take into account that Beatrice Ekweremadu has extensive duties to look after her daughter who requires regular dialysis treatment. I am minded that Sonia can live under the care of her brothers and sisters.’

As her parents were taken down to the cells, Sonia continued to weep.

The offence of conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the travel of another person with a view to their exploitation, under section 2(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 carries the maximum of 10 years jail.

Beatrice and Sonia both burst into tears in the dock and hugged Ike as the unanimous verdicts were announced after 13 hours and 42 minutes.

Mr Justice Johnson ordered reports and adjourned sentence until 5 May.

Obeta and Ike were remanded in custody along with Beatrice, who was previously on conditional bail throughout the trial.

Remanding Beatrice in custody, Mr Justice Johnson said: ‘I take into account that Beatrice Ekweremadu has extensive duties to look after her daughter who requires regular dialysis treatment. I am minded that Sonia can live under the care of her brothers and sisters.’

As her parents were taken down to the cells, Sonia continued to weep.

The offence of conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the travel of another person with a view to their exploitation, under section 2(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 carries the maximum of 10 years jail.