Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and three other individuals, including his wife, daughter, and a medical middleman, Dr. Obinna Obeta, are on trial at the Old Bailey in London for an alleged plot to bring a young man from Lagos to the UK to donate his kidney. Earlier reports alleged that the young man, a 21-year-old street trader was promised up to £7,000 and a better life if he posed as Sonia’s cousin to obtain a visa for the UK.
Prosecutor Hugh Davies KC accused Ekweremadu, of not approaching family members to donate the organ because he wanted the “medical risk” to go to someone he didn’t know. Davies claimed that Ekweremadu brought the street trader to the UK to harvest his kidney because it was “far better to buy one” than find a family member to donate the organ.
During the trial, Ekweremadu was asked why he didn’t try to find a suitable match among his family members instead of trying to buy a kidney. The politician said he believed it was not an option after being told about a conversation between his brother, Diwe, and Dr. Obeta in Sep 2021. However, the prosecutor argued that Ekweremadu had not asked any medical specialists if a family member could donate a kidney.
The prosecutor rejected Ekweremadu’s claim that he had “limited intelligence” and suggested that he had no intention of anyone in his family, immediate or extended, stepping up to donate a kidney to his daughter, Sonia. The prosecutor stated that it would have been better for Ekweremadu to let the medical risk go to someone he did not know.