Olusegun Olanrewaju and Deborah Onyofufeke

Ike Ekweremadu, the two names carry powerful weights in the Igbo language. The first literarily means ‘strength’ or ‘one who believes in himself’. Both, however, failed to translate to bail or freedom yesterday in far-away London, the capital of the United Kingdom (UK).

The former Deputy Senate President, Ekweremadu; his wife, Beatrice, and their doctor, Obinna Obeta, were yesterday convicted of organ trafficking.

Ekweremadu, 60; his wife, Beatrice, 56; and Obeta, 51, were found guilty of facilitating the travel of a young man to Britain with a view to his exploitation after a six-week trial at the London metropolitan courthouse, the Old Bailey.

However, the lawmaker’s daughter, Sonia, was cleared by the court.

The jury said the trio of Ekweremadu, the spouse, and their physician criminally conspired to bring the 21-year-old Lagos street trader to London to exploit his kidney for the senator’s daughter’s ailment.

The prosecutor, Hugh Davies, a King’s Counsel (KC) told the court that the Ekweremadus and Obeta had treated the man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward”. He said they entered an “emotionally cold commercial transaction” with the man.

Davies also told the jury the behaviour of Ekweremadu showed “entitlement, dishonesty, and hypocrisy.”

He said Ekweremadu, who owns several properties and had a staff of 80, “agreed to reward someone for a kidney for his daughter – somebody in circumstances of poverty and from whom he distanced himself and made no inquiries, and with whom, for his political protection, he wanted no direct contact”.

Davies added, “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.”

Ortom will not appear before PDP disciplinary committee – Wike

Ekweremadu had denied the charge. He told the court he was the victim of a scam.

The doctor, Obeta, who also denied the charge, claimed the man was not offered a reward for his kidney, and was acting altruistically.

In her defence, Beatrice denied any knowledge of the alleged conspiracy, but Sonia did not give any evidence.

*Judge reserves sentence for a later date

The judge, Jeremy Johnson, will, however, pass a sentence at a later date.

Before the decision yesterday, the case had assumed a trend of twists and turns, with allegations of conspiracy thrown about in some quarters.

In June 2022, the Senate was accused of keeping mum on the plight of one of its once-top principal officers who was arrested alongside his wife, Beatrice, by the London Metropolitan police.

On 30th June 2022, the Metropolitan Police also charged Ekweremadu and his wife with conspiracy to traffic David Nwamini to the UK.

The government of the state the embattled senator came from, Enugu, also expressed sadness over the ordeal of the Ekweremadus.

By November 2022, the accusations of negligence on the part of the government touched on the Nigerian as it was alleged in some quarters that it was behind the senator’s family ordeals.

The accusation was made on 6th November 2022, by the youth wing of the Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, which accused the Federal Government of masterminding the ordeal of the former deputy senate president.

Meanwhile, reactions to the conviction of the trio have been trending on social media.

The governor of Ekweremadu’s home state, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi had earlier committed Ekweremadu’s ordeal to the hands of God.

He also called for prayers, on November 7, 2022, over the ordeals of the senator who was behind the bars in Britain.

Following the seizure of the assets belonging to Ekweremadu, the apex pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, a day later, also accused the Federal Government of masterminding the ordeal of the deputy senate president.

Following the pressing of the case on alleged organ harvesting, Ekweremadu accused the Economic and Financial Crimes (EFCC) of ‘masterminding’ the ordeal.

Last December also, Ekweremadu himself had submitted that Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was behind his travels.

However, on 15th December 2022, a lawyer to the EFCC, Sylvanus Tahir, SAN, denied that his client was behind Ekweremadu’s ordeal in the UK, but admitted that the lawyer wrote a letter to London concerning the case.