Senator Ike Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice and a medical “middleman” Obinna Obeta have been found guilty of conspiring to traffic a market trader to the UK to harvest his kidney.
Ekweremadu , his wife Beatrice and daughter Sonia stood trial accused of a conspiracy to bring the man to Britain from Lagos for his body part.
It was alleged that the 21-year-old street trader was to be rewarded for donating the organ to Sonia Ekweremadu, in an £80,000 private procedure at London’s Royal Free Hospital.
Dr Obinna Obeta, the medical “middleman”, was also found guilty.
The Ekweremadus’ daughter Sonia, 25, wept as she was cleared of the same charge.
The case marks the first time defendants have been convicted under the Modern Slavery Act of an organ harvesting conspiracy.
Ekweremadu’s sentence is one of the high profile cases of human trafficking and organ harvest.
He served as Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for over 19 years and had indicated interest to contest the governorship elections in Enugu State before he was arrested in the UK.
