In sentencing the Former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu on Friday, Justice Jeremy Johnson, of the UK Court said all three conspirators played a part in a “despicable trade,” adding that “the harvesting of human organs is a form of slavery. It treats human beings and their bodies as commodities to be bought and sold.”

Justice Johnson pointed out that Ike Ekweremadu had been part of the Nigerian senate when it outlawed organ trafficking.

The judge told Ekweremadu that, “You played a leading role in the offending. You did so in order to secure the material advantage, namely a human kidney for your daughter. I am sure that you were the driving force throughout. Your conviction represents a very substantial fall from grace.”

While making reference to the bribing of a medical secretary at the Royal Free allegedly by the former Deputy Senate President, the judge said: “You were involved in the corruption of a member of hospital staff,” pointing out that Ekweremadu must serve two-thirds of his sentence in prison and the remainder released under license.

Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Nigerian politician was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison in the UK for being the “driving force” in a plot to harvest a kidney for his sick daughter from a young man he had trafficked to London.

Ekweremadu, 60, his wife, Beatrice, 56, and Dr Obinna Obeta, 51, were found guilty by an Old Bailey jury in March in the first organ trafficking conviction under the Modern Slavery Act.

They were found to have conspired to bring a 21-year-old Lagos street trader to a private renal unit at London’s Royal Free hospital as a potential kidney donor for Ekweremadu’s daughter Sonia. (Daily Sun)