Ekweremadu’s sentencing: UK court to deliver judgement today
Ike Ekweremadu, a former vice president of the Nigerian senate, his wife Beatrice, and Obinna Obeta, a doctor, were found guilty of organ trafficking in March and will receive their sentences today, Friday, in the United Kingdom.
For violating the Modern Slavery Act, they could face a 10-year sentence in prison.
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This will be the first verdict of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act.
Ekweremadu, Beatrice, and Obeta were convicted of conspiring to exploit a young Nigerian man named David Nwamini for his kidney by arranging his travel to the United Kingdom.
Sonia, Ekweremadu’s sick daughter, needed the organ.
Their trial lasted six weeks, and a verdict is expected today at the Old Bailey, London’s Central Criminal Court.
Hugh Davies, the prosecutor, told the jury that Ekweremadu exhibited “entitlement, dishonesty, and hypocrisy”
Beatrice and Ekweremadu both denied the charge.
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They denied any familiarity with the purported conspiracy.
They also informed the court that they had been duped.
Obeta, on his part, also denied the charge, claiming that the man was acting altruistically and was not offered a reward for his kidney.
In the meantime, the former president of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, had penned a letter to the British authorities pleading for the legislator to temper justice with mercy when delivering the sentence.
In addition, the Igbo sociocultural organisation Ohaneze Ndigbo, the Nigerian Senate, the Nigerian House of Representatives, and the Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) had joined the fray, pleading with the British Authorities for leniency towards the accused lawmaker.
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