Organ Harvesting Trial Accused Admits Lying About His Own Kidney Donor Being His Cousin

Undated image of Sonia Ekweremadu sitting next to a man who was allegedly lined up to donate a kidney to her, in a restaurant in London in February 2022. Metropolitan Police

LONDON—A radiologist accused of being the middleman in an illegal attempt to procure a kidney from a street trader in Lagos that was to be donated to the daughter of a wealthy Nigerian politician has admitted he lied when he claimed his own donor was his cousin.

Obinna Obeta, 51, told a jury he himself underwent a kidney transplant in July 2021 and admitted he lied on the paperwork but added, “I was desperate to survive.”