Crime
Organ Harvesting: UK court finds Ekweremadu, wife, others guilty
In the first conviction of its sort under the Modern Slavery Act, former Nigerian Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, his wife, daughter, and a doctor were all found guilty of trafficking in human organs.
During a six-week trial at the Old Bailey, the politician, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, daughter Sonia, 25, and Dr. Obinna Obeta, 51, were all convicted guilty of enabling a young man’s visit to Britain with the intention of exploiting him.
The jury concluded that they had criminally planned to lure the young street vendor from Lagos to London so they could take advantage of him for his kidney.
It was reported that the donor could not be identified for legal reasons and that he had been given an illegal incentive to donate a kidney to the patient.
It also said Sonia’s kidney disease forced her to drop out of a master’s degree in film at Newcastle University, the court heard as it said Sonia was found not guilty.
In February 2022 the man was falsely presented to a private renal unit at Royal Free hospital in London as Sonia’s cousin in a failed attempt to persuade medics to carry out an £80,000 transplant.
For a fee, a medical secretary at the hospital acted as an Igbo translator between the man and the doctors to help try to convince them he was an altruistic donor, the court heard.
The prosecutor Hugh Davies KC told the court that 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.
Ekweremadu’s attitude as a successful lawyer and founder of an anti-poverty charity who helped draw up Nigeria’s laws against organ trafficking portrayed “entitlement, dishonesty and hypocrisy”, Davies told the jury.
Davies 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 own political protection, he wanted no direct contact”.
He 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 defense 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.”
Ekweremadu, who denied the charge, told the court he was the victim of a scam. Obeta, who also denied the charge, claimed the man was not offered a reward for his kidney and was acting altruistically. Beatrice denied any knowledge of the alleged conspiracy. Sonia did not give evidence.
WhatsApp messages showed to the court revealed Obeta charged Ekweremadu N4.5 million (about £8,000) made up of an “agent fee” and a “donor fee”.
Ekweremadu and Obeta admitted falsely claiming the man was Sonia’s cousin in his visa application and in documents presented to the hospital.
Davies said Ekweremadu ignored medical advice to find a donor for his daughter among genuine family members. He said: “At no point in time was there ever any intention for a family member close, medium or distant to do what could be paid for from a pool of donors.”
The judge, Justice Jeremy Johnson, will pass a sentence on 5 May.
The police in Lagos have dragged two women, Mmesuma Ofunna, and Blessing Adimekwe, before an Ojo Magistrates’ Court in Lagos, over alleged obtaining money by false pretence.
Ofunna, 22, and Adimekwe, 25, were arraigned before the Magistrate, Mr L K J Layeni, on a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence, stealing and conduct likely to breach peace.
They each, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The prosecutor, ASP Simon Uche, told the court that the defendants conspired with others now at large, to commit the offence on Oct. 26 at the Okokomaiko area of Ojo.
He alleged that they had obtained the sum of N70, 000 from one Faith Ahamefule, with a promise not to post her nude photo on social media.
The prosecutor alleged that the defendants later posted the nude photo of the nominal complainant on social media, knowing that their promise was false.
He alleged that they stole the N70, 0000, thereby conducting themselves in a manner likely to breach public peace.
The offence contravenes the provisions of sections 168(d), 287, 314, and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.
The court granted the defendants bails in the sum of N500, 000 each, with two sureties each in like sum.
He adjourned the case until Jan. 8, 2025 for mention.
A Jos Magistrates’ Court on Monday, sentenced a 26-year-old Mechanic, Sadiq Umar to 15 months imprisonment for pickpocketing from passengers.
The Magistrate, Shawomi Bokkos, summarily tried and sentenced the convict after he pleaded guilty to the charge.
Bokkos in his judgment, ordered the convict to pay an option of N100, 000 fine or spend one year in prison.
He also asked him to pay a compensation of N15, 000 or an additional three months in prison in default.
Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp Ijuptil Thiawur, told the court that the case was reported on Nov.16, at the “A” Division Police station by Moses Pam, Alexander Bakshak and Simon Justice the complaints.
Thiawur said that the convict attempted to steal from them before he was caught in the act and when the driver stopped the vehicle to search him he fled but was caught.
The Police said that the offence contravened the Plateau Penal Code Law.
The Zone-2 Police Command in Lagos says it has detained two suspected international fraudsters that allegedly specialised in forging foreign certificates in Lagos and Ghana.
The AIG in charge of the zone, Adegoke Fayaode, confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday.
Fayoade said that the suspects allegedly offered N66m to the operatives with a view to free them but the offer was turned down.
NAN reports that the same zone operatives rejected a N174m bribe offered by a suspect in November to set him free.
Fayoade said that the suspects simply identified as Elvis, 23 and Kelly, 24, allegedly specialised in forging certificates of different nations and African Universities and defrauding their unsuspecting victims on the internet.
He said that the suspects have succeeded in acquiring exotic cars and erecting mansions in different parts of the country with the proceeds of their loot.
The AIG pointed out that luck ran out of the suspects after detectives at the Anti-Corruption Unit of the Zone received credible information from Nigerians in diaspora concerning some group of boys that specialised in forging foreign certificates.
According to him, on getting the information, he detailed the anti-corruption unit to investigate it and arrest the suspects without delay.
Fayoade said that based on his directives, the detectives stormed Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos waiting for the arrival of the suspects, whom they trailed to a five star hotel at Osapa-London in Lekki Area.
He said that the operatives arrested the suspects at a bus stop while they were about to escape secretly from the hotel, after monitoring their activities.
“Searching their luggage, one certificate of Blue Crest College, Ghana, belonging to Elvis and a student identity card of Academic City College belonging to Kelly were recovered.
“Further search revealed a transcript of an academic record from Blue Crest University belonging to Elvis.
“A letter of English proficiency from the said college and a letter of recommendation from the same Blue Crest College were recovered,” he said.
The AIG said that the suspects made useful statements to the police and confessed that they never got any admission into the school, stressing that they only procured the degree certificates through the help of a female Nigerian resident in Ghana.
“The suspects further confessed that the major aim of doing that is to enable them to get Ghana resident permit, which they got.
“The resident permit is showing them also as a student of Academic City University and that none of them has ever been admitted in the school.
“They claimed they paid a total of 26,000 Ghana Cedis for all the documents procured.
“They confessed that they procured all the documents to evade arrest in Ghana since they don’t have any means of livelihood.
Whenever police intercepted them, they showed their passports that they were students in Ghana.”
Fayoade said that the suspects were also allegedly involved in online romance scam, provision of foreign bank accounts for fraudulent transactions on the internet through what they call ‘Facebook bombing’.
He said the suspects presented themselves as an American soldier by name Captain Donald Rowe, serving in Syria, whom they impersonated on Instagram, using his name to defraud innocent persons.
The AIG said that while detectives were making frantic efforts to get more credible information from the suspects, they started negotiating to bribe the operatives for them to be set free.
“I directed my men to play along and recover the money as an exhibit. Subsequently, the detectives played along and the suspects paid them a sum of N66m, which they collected and kept as an exhibit.
“The Nigeria Police authorities have written to the Ghana embassy to get more information about the result and their suspected partners in Ghana said to be spearheading the fraud.
Fayoade said that they had also spread their dragnets through the International Police, Interpol, to round up their foreign accomplices.
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