3 have been found guilty in recent kidney transplant ploy

They tricked a man into ‘working’ for them, plotting to steal his kidney for their dying daughter

Nigerian Senator Ike Ekweremadu, aged 60, and his wife Beatrice, aged 56, were found guilty of participating in an organized organ-harvesting plot. The plan was orchestrated by another Nigerian, Dr. Obinna Obeta, who was also found guilty and described as the “medical middleman” at the trial.

Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife Beatrice, both of whom reside in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, were found guilty of conspiring to arrange/facilitate the travel of another person with the intention of exploiting them for the purpose of organ harvesting in violation of Section 2 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

The criminal conviction of the couple was based on evidence that showed that they had organized and paid for the travel of the unnamed individual with the intent of harvesting their organs without their consent or knowledge. The court said that the defendants showed utter disregard for the victim and tried to exploit a vulnerable victim by trafficking him to the UK.

How did the couple trick the man into traveling to their location?

The jurors at the Old Bailey, Britain’s criminal court, heard the horrific story of how a 21-year-old man from Nigeria was tricked into believing he was traveling to the UK for a job. In actuality, the accused couple, who have not been named, had planned to harvest his kidney and transplant it to their daughter, Sonia Ekweremadu, a 25-year-old woman.

Sonia had become ill while studying for a master’s degree in December 2019. Her father began working with his medically trained brother, Diwe Ekweremadu, to find a kidney donor for Sonia. They reached out to Dr. Obeta, who had received a private kidney transplant from a Nigerian donor. The victim knew the man who had donated his kidney to Dr. Obeta and was recruited from a Lagos street market under the guise of ‘working’ for a few pounds a day.

The man had been informed of a job opportunity in the UK and was told he would receive up to 7,000 pounds. He was then brought to the UK and held against his will. The accused couple had planned to extract the man’s kidney, transplant it into their daughter, and then send him back to Nigeria without his kidney.

He had been living in the Ekweremadu family’s home for a few months and was earning a few pounds (euros) per day by selling mobile phone accessories. He was unaware of the family’s intentions and believed that he was simply employed by them.

After several medical appointments, he realized that he was going to be forced to donate one of his kidneys, with doctors testifying that he had no idea why he was at the hospital. After a few days, he managed to escape.

What happened with the organ-harvesting plot in Egypt?

A court in Egypt convicted a total of 37 people for their involvement in an illegal human organ trafficking operation. The operation was uncovered in July 2018 after a long investigation by local authorities. The individuals were found to have been involved in trafficking organs, such as kidneys and livers, from vulnerable individuals in exchange for money.

The operation had been going on for several years before it was uncovered. The people convicted were charged with a variety of offenses, including the illegal trafficking of human organs, the exploitation of the vulnerable, and fraud.

The sentences for those convicted ranged from prison sentences of up to 15 years to fines and community service. The incident highlighted the need for greater oversight of the human organ trafficking industry in Egypt and throughout the world.

What has been one of the most recent cases involving organ trafficking?

On Friday, April 31, 2023, Guatemalan security forces, with support from the United States, arrested four doctors suspected of organ trafficking. The Attorney General’s Office stated that the doctors had performed a surgical operation on an individual without their consent, during which they had removed one of their kidneys.

This incident has been labeled as organ trafficking, which is an illegal activity that involves the sale of a person’s organs for profit. It is a crime in Guatemala and many other countries and has severe penalties for those caught engaging in it.

In this particular case, four doctors are believed to have been involved in the illegal kidney extraction from a patient, with the patient being given another diagnosis to justify the intervention. According to Moisés Ortiz, a spokesman for the entity that is handling the case, the doctors are “linked to the illegal extraction of a kidney from a patient who was given another diagnosis to justify the intervention”.

The two urologists, a surgeon, and a pathologist told the woman that they were going to perform an operation to remove her adrenal gland. She agreed and went through with the procedure. However, after the operation, she began to feel discomfort, so she decided to go back to the medical professionals to be checked. To her shock, she discovered that her kidney had been removed instead of her adrenal gland.

References

[i] Jason Lemon, 37, Convicted for Multi-Million Dollar Illegal Organ harvesting Operation in Egypt (Jul. 12, 2018)

[ii] AFP, Guatemala captures four doctors accused of organ trafficking (Mar. 4, 2023)

[iii] Joshua Askew, Nigerian politician and doctor convicted in ‘horrific’ UK organ harvesting plot (Mar. 24, 2023)

[iii] Tom Symonds, Ike Ekweremadu: Organ-trafficking plot politician and wife guilty (Mar. 23, 2023)