BREAKING: UK Court Jails Ekweremadu For 10 Years, Wife, Doctor Sentenced

A court sitting in the United Kingdom has sentenced former deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu to nine years and eight months for organ harvesting.

BBC reports that his wife, Beatrice was sentenced to four years and six months.

Their doctor, Obinna Obeta, was jailed for 10 years while his medical licence was withdrawn.

Recall that a court in the United Kingdom had on March 23, found former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice, guilty of organ harvesting in the country.

THE WHISTLER reports that the former senate President was arrested by the London Metropolitan Police following an intelligence report.

He was subsequently arraigned on organ harvesting and trafficking charges in line with the UK modern slavery legislation.

He was said to have arranged the travel of a young man, David Ukpo, from the streets of Lagos State for that purpose.

David Ukpo, the alleged kidney donor, was said to have alerted the hospital in the UK, alleging he was unaware he was brought into the country to donate his kidney to Ekweremadu’s daughter, Sonia.

But Ekweremadu and his wife had pleaded not guilty to the charges, saying they were “scammed”.

The prosecutor Hugh Davies KC had raised objection insisting that the Ekweremadus and his doctor treated donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward”.

“What he agreed to do was not simply expedient in the clinical interests of his daughter, Sonia, it was exploitation, it was criminal. It is no defence to say he acted out of love for his daughter. Her clinical needs cannot come at the expense of the exploitation of somebody in poverty,” the prosecutor said.

Justice Jeremy Johnson had agreed with the prosecution’s submission.

On Friday, the judge sentenced them in line with relevant laws despite plea for clemency by Nigeria’s lawmakers.