A judge at The Central Criminal Court, also known as the Old Bailey, has sentenced former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice and Doctor Obinna Obeta to jail.
At a sentencing hearing on Friday, Ekweremadu was jailed for nine years and eight months, his wife Beatrice was sentenced to four years and six months imprisonment while Obeta-the middleman received a 10-year prison term.
The sentencing follows their conviction in March for organ trafficking. The Ekweremadus’ sick daughter, Sonia, was cleared of any wrongdoing.
During a televised sentence hearing, Justice Johnson recognised Ike Ekweremadu’s “substantial fall from grace”.
He said: “People-trafficking across international borders for the harvesting of human organs is a form of slavery.”
Their victim, a poor street trader in Lagos, was brought to the UK to provide a kidney for the Ekweremadus’ daughter.
He fled in fear of his life and walked into a police station exactly a year ago to report what had happened after the Royal Free Hospital called a halt on the private £80,000 procedure.
