By Our Correspondent
Former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice and Dr Obinna Obeta have been sentenced to prison for their involvement in the organ harvesting charges brought against them by a UK court.
Ekweremadu was jailed nine years and eight months while his wife got four years and six months sentence in prison.
The medical “middleman” Dr Obeta, 50 bagged a 10 – year prison term.
The trio were found guilty in the Old Bailey in March.
The Ekweremadus’ daughter Sonia, who has a serious kidney condition, wept as she was cleared of the same charge.
Mr Justice Johnson told the defendants: “In each of your cases, the offence you committed is so serious that neither a fine nor a community sentence can be justified.”
The prosecution heard that a 21-year-old street trader in Lagos was to be rewarded for donating an organ to Sonia Ekweremadu in an £80,000 private procedure at London’s Royal Free Hospital.
The case marked the first time defendants have been convicted under the Modern Slavery Act of an organ harvesting conspiracy.
While it is lawful to donate a kidney, it becomes criminal if money or another material advantage is rewarded.
The prosecution claimed the donor was offered up to £7,000 and promised a better life in the UK.
The donor did not understand until his first appointment with a consultant at the hospital that he was there for a kidney transplant, the Old Bailey was told.
(Daily Post except headlines)