A Nigerian politician, his wife and a doctor have been convicted in a London court of organ trafficking in the first such ruling under the Modern Slavery Act.

After a six-week trial, 60-year-old Senator and former Vice President of the Nigerian Senate Ike Ekweremadu, his 56-year-old wife Beatrice and others, Obinna Obeta was found guilty last year of transporting and exploiting a young Nigerian to Britain.

According to a court order, the three conspired to bring a young street vendor from Lagos to London to have his kidney removed.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was illegally offered £7,000 as a donor for the senator’s daughter Sonia, who was forced to drop out of Newcastle University graduate school due to kidney disease.

In February 2022, a young Nigerian falsely identified himself in a private kidney department at the Royal Free Hospital in London as Sonia’s cousin in an unsuccessful attempt to convince doctors to perform a kidney transplant (costing £80,000).

It is noted that in Britain it is allowed to donate a kidney, but not for a fee.

In his testimony, the young man said that he thought he was going to work in Britain, and only when he ran into British doctors did he realize that they were going to remove his organ. The transplant never took place.

“Equeremadho, who has a lot of property and a staff of 80, agreed to pay someone for a kidney for his daughter — someone in poverty, from whom he distanced himself and did not want any contact for political reasons,” prosecutor Hugh Davis said. .

Their verdicts will be announced on May 5. They face life imprisonment under the Modern Slavery Act.

Source: Guardian