A UK court has on Friday sentenced former deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu to nine years and eight months in jail for plotting to harvest a man’s kidney for his sick daughter.
Meanwhile, Ekweremadu’s wife Beatrice was handed four years, six months sentence while Obinna Obeta, a medical doctor got a 10 years’ sentence for the same offence.
Recall the trio of Ekweremadu, Beatrice and Obeta were convicted of conspiracy to arrange the travel of a young Nigerian man who was identified as David Nwamini to Britain in order to exploit him for his kidney.
The organ was needed for Ekweremadu’s sick daughter, Sonia.
Their trial lasted for six weeks and conviction at the Old Bailey, London’s Central Criminal Court, is expected today.
The Prosecutor, Hugh Davies told the jury that the behaviour of Ekweremadu showed “entitlement, dishonesty and hypocrisy”.
“Entitlement, dishonesty and hypocrisy”
The prosecutor, Hugh Davies KC, had told the court that Ekweremadus and Obeta had treated the man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward”.
He said they entered an “emotionally cold commercial transaction” with the man, The Guardian UK report added.
The behaviour of Ekweremadu showed “entitlement, dishonesty and hypocrisy”, Davies told the jury.
He said Ekweremadu “agreed to reward someone for a kidney for his daughter – somebody in circumstances of poverty and from whom he distanced himself and made no inquiries, and with whom, for his own political protection, he wanted no direct contact”.
Davies added, “What he agreed to do was not simply expedient in the clinical interests of his daughter, Sonia, it was exploitation, it was criminal. It is no defence to say he acted out of love for his daughter. Her clinical needs cannot come at the expense of the exploitation of somebody in poverty.”
On March 14, ANN reported that Beatrice denied involvement in the search for an organ donor for their ailing daughter, Sonia.
ANN also reported that Ekweremadu claimed he involved the young man after he was advised by his doctor against seeking a kidney donor from among his family members.
