LONDON—A wealthy Nigerian politician and his wife offered an itinerant hawker in Lagos up to £7,000 to give his kidney to their ill daughter and lied about him being a distant cousin in order to get a UK visa, a jury at the Old Bailey in London has been told.
Ike Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice Nwanneka Ekweremadu, 56, and their daughter Sonia, 25, went on trial on Monday along with Obinna Obeta, a doctor. All four deny conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the travel of another person with a view to their exploitation.
The prosecutor, Hugh Davies, KC, said the 21-year-old donor—who cannot be named for legal reasons—arrived in the UK in February 2022 and underwent tests at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, north London, but the operation did not go ahead.
He told the court the allegations relate to a period between August 2021 and May 5, 2022.
‘Money and Status Cannot Guarantee ... Good Health’
But he added: “There are, however, certain things that money and status cannot guarantee in any family and they include good health.”He said Sonia had a serious kidney condition called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis with nephrotic syndrome, which could only be cured in the long-term by a kidney transplant.
Davies said Sonia’s uncle, Isaac Ekweremadu, was a doctor—who had gone to medical school with Obeta—who played a key part in advising on her treatment.
“He is also alleged to be a party to the conspiracy, although is not on trial because he is in Nigeria,” the prosecutor added.
Davies explained to the jury that under English law it is lawful for someone to donate a kidney if the medical risks have been fully explained to them, but “it is criminal to reward someone for donating a kidney.”
He said of the donors: “The law must protect them from themselves: it must protect them from those with greater power who want their body parts. It must apply such as to address the recognised international industry in organ trafficking.”
Davies said the donor underwent some basic tests to ensure he was of the right blood group and did not have any kidney disease and was then flown to London, where he “was throughout under the direction and financial control of the alleged conspirators.”
Donor Will Be Key Prosecution Witness
Davies told the jury the donor would be a prosecution witness in the trial and said, “His account is that he did not understand until his first effective screening appointment at the Royal Free Hospital ... that he was there for a kidney transplant.”He said a consultant neprhologist at the Royal Free, Dr. Peter Dupont, would testify that the donor had a limited understanding of why he was at the hospital and appeared “visibly relieved” when told the transplant would not be going ahead.
The prosecutor said: “As the evidence will establish, throughout the process elaborate steps were taken to create the wholly false impression that the donor and Sonia Ekweremadu were cousins. This intended, and necessary, deception as to a family connection extended to the formal documents used to obtain his temporary visa for travel to the United Kingdom, and to coaching him with false answers to give to the Royal Free Hospital doctors.”
“None of this would have been necessary if this was a straightforward, genuine, altruistic kidney donation,” Davies added.
The jury was told Obeta had himself undergone a kidney transplant in 2021, when the donor was flown in from Nigeria, and Davies said it appeared that donor knew the donor in Sonia Ekweremadu’s case because both worked at the same market in Lagos.
Davies said Obeta had put up a GoFundMe page when he had his kidney transplant and said a private transplant cost around £60,000, but the prosecutor said Dupont has said Sonia Ekweremadu’s operation would have cost at least £80,000.
The prosecutor said Ike Ekweremadu transferred 1 million naira (£1,800) to Obeta on Sept. 24, 2021 and told him to begin the “search and screen.”
Davies said: “This is all obviously far removed from anyone claiming there was a pool of purely altruistic donors in Nigeria waiting to donate, for no reward, to complete strangers in London. In reality the opposite was the case. No such pool of altruistic donors existed.”
He said the Ekweremadus were trying to find an “economically vulnerable” person whose blood and genotype matched Sonia and who would be willing to provide a kidney for a reward.
The prosecutor said the defendants said little during police interviews and he added: “Their positions will be defined during the trial, most particularly if they elect to give evidence. They deny the allegations.”
Ekweremadu served three terms as deputy president of the Senate in Nigeria, from 2007 to 2019. He has been a senator for Enugu since 2003 and is a member of the People’s Democratic Party.
The trial continues but the judge, Mr. Justice Johnson, has warned the jury there may be several days when proceedings are truncated because of medical treatment that Sonia Ekweremadu is undergoing.
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