According to a report by the UK Guardian, Ike Ekweremadu, a former Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, his wife, and a doctor have been found guilty of organ trafficking by a UK court, in what is described as the first verdict of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act.
They were convicted of facilitating the travel of a young man to the UK with the intention of exploiting him for his kidney. The man, who was not a minor, had been offered an illegal reward to become a donor for Mr. Ekweremadu’s daughter who suffers from kidney disease.
The Ekweremadus and the doctor were accused of treating the man and other potential donors as “disposable assets” and entering into an “emotionally cold commercial transaction” with him.
Mr. Ekweremadu, who had helped draw up Nigeria’s laws against organ trafficking, was described as displaying “entitlement, dishonesty, and hypocrisy” by the prosecutor, who also stated that the accused had distanced themselves from the man, who was in poverty, and made no inquiries about his circumstances.
The accused denied the charges, but WhatsApp messages presented in court showed that an “agent fee” and a “donor fee” had been charged. The judge will pass a sentence at a later date.
