LONDON – Nigeria’s former deputy senate president is due to go on trial in Britain today along with family members for alleged organ harvesting.
Ike Ekweremadu, 60, will face trial at the Old Bailey court today, accused along with his wife, daughter, and a doctor of bringing a 21-year-old man from Nigeria to have his kidney removed.
Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly planned to have a kidney removed from a 21-year-old Nigerian man, so that it could be given to the politician’s daughter, Sonia.
The man is said to have raised the alarm after refusing to consent to the procedure, following preliminary tests at a north London hospital.
Charges were brought after the man went to the police in a town outside London, and the Ekweremadus were arrested in June last year at London’s Heathrow airport after flying into the UK.
Another man, Obinna Obeta, a 50-year-old doctor from south London, was arrested at a later date.
The trial is due to open at about 1000 GMT today (6pm Malaysian time). It was brought forward from a planned date in May.
Ekweremadu is a senator for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party for Enugu state in southeast Nigeria.
The Ekweremadus and the doctor are accused of conspiracy to arrange the travel of another person with a view to exploitation, under UK legislation on modern slavery.
The alleged offence is alleged to have taken place between August 2021 and May 2022.
Ike Ekweremadu had his bail plea rejected over concerns he might flee Britain.
The doctor, Obeta, was also detained. Beatrice and Sonia Ekweremadu were released on conditional bail. – AFP, January 31, 2023
