It is a solemn day for the household of the former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, as he marks his 62nd birthday anniversary inside a prison in the United Kingdom.
Both Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, were on May 5, 2023, sentenced for engaging in organ trafficking.
While the ex-lawmaker bagged nine years and eight months jail term, his wife was sentenced to four years and six months.
In a landmark decision predicated on the Modern Slavery Act, Ekweremadu, his wife and his daughter, Sonia, were found to have facilitated the travel of a young man to the United Kingdom for the purpose of harvesting his kidney.
The jury had on March, 2023, equally found a medical doctor, Obinna Obeta, complicit in the crime.
The decision of the jury followed a trial that lasted about six weeks.
A Nigerian boy, David Ukpo, had alleged that Ekweremadu and his wife sponsored his trip to the UK in order to harvest his kidney and transplant same in their ailing daughter, Sonia.
Following Ukpo’s allegation, Ekweremadu, who was representing Enugu West Senatorial District, and his wife, who is a chartered accountant and civil servant, were arrested by the Metropolitan Police in the UK.
They were subsequently charged before the Uxbridge Magistrate Court, UK, on June 23, 2022, for offences of conspiracy to arrange/facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting.
The court had after the duo were arraigned, denied them bail and ordered their remand in custody.
Though the UK police initially alleged that Ukpo was 15 years old, however, personal details on both his International Passport and Bank Verification Number, BVN, revealed that he is about 21 years.
Owing to interventions that involved the Nigerian government, Ekweremadu’s wife, Beatrice, was on July 26, 2022, released on bail, pending the determination of the charge before the court.
The court, popularly known as Old Bailey, in a ruling that was delivered by Judge Richard Marks, granted bail to Mrs Ekweremadu on very stringent conditions, but denied bail to her husband, who remained in custody.
A Nigerian doctor, Obeta, who is practising in the U.K, was also charged with plotting with the Ekweremadus to traffic a man into the UK to harvest a kidney for their daughter.
Mr Obeta appeared before Bexley Magistrates’ court on July 13, 2022, and was charged under the Modern Slavery Act with arranging the travel of a 21-year-old man between August 2021 and May 2022 to exploit him.
Meanwhile, even though Ike Ekweremadu is in prison, many of his associates are celebrating his birthday.
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Ikechukwu Somemore Nnochiri
