A UK court has sentenced former Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice and Doctor Obinna Obeta to prison for their involvement in organ harvesting.
At the sentencing hearing on Friday, the former deputy senate president was sentenced for nine years and eight months, his wife Beatrice received a four years and six months imprisonment while Obeta received a 10-year prison term.
But, the couple’s daughter Sonia, was cleared of the same charge.
In the organ harvesting case that indicted Ekweremadu, his wife and doctor, 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.
While it is lawful to donate a kidney, it becomes criminal if money or another material advantage is rewarded.
The prosecution claimed the donor was offered up to £7,000 and promised a better life in the UK.
According to Old Bailey, the donor did not understand until his first appointment with a consultant at the hospital, where he was told that he was there for a kidney transplant.
