LONDON—A young street trader from Lagos who had been offered money to give a kidney to the daughter of a wealthy Nigerian politician fled the home of a facilitator, spent several days homeless in London, and then walked into a police station and told them his story, a trial has heard.
Ike Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice Nwanneka Ekweremadu, 56, and their daughter Sonia, 25, are on trial at the Old Bailey in central London, along with Obinna Obeta, a doctor. All four deny conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the travel of another person with a view to their exploitation.
On Monday the prosecutor, Hugh Davies, KC, said the defendants had offered a 21-year-old street trader—who cannot be named for legal reasons—£7,000 to give his kidney to their ill daughter and lied about him being a distant cousin in order to get a UK visa.
Davies continued opening the case on Tuesday and said: “Body parts are not car parts. They simply cannot be traded for reward. Supply of human body parts for reward is human exploitation in all circumstances.”
He said: “The prosecution contends that the evidence will establish—albeit for different motives, Obeta for a fee, the Ekweremadus to address an urgent clinical need—that each of these defendants agreed to arrange or facilitate the travel of [the donor] to London with a view to his exploitation. With a view to rewarding him for providing a kidney.”
Davies told the jury the transplant did not go ahead at the Royal Free Hospital in London because two nephrologists, Dr. Peter Dupont and Dr. Philip Masson, decided the donor was not suitable as a donor for Sonia Ekweremadu.
He said Sonia was informed of this decision on March 29, 2022 and he said from April 1, 2022 there is evidence her parents immediately began searching for another donor, and also began to explore the possibility of doing the transplant in Turkey.
Davies said: “The decision to transfer the transplant centre away from London may be seen as based on a perception of a different level of regulatory control there, relative to the United Kingdom. In clinical terms, according to Dr. Dupont, it did not make sense since Sonia Ekweremadu already had a clinical team in London and, in his opinion, clinical outcomes in Turkey were less favourable than London.”
Davies said that while the defendants looked for a new kidney for their daughter, the original donor walked into a police station in Staines, west of London, on May 5, 2022. He had on him a mobile phone and a charger but no money.
The prosecutor said the donor told police he had been trafficked from Nigeria in order to provide a kidney, had been walking for three days and had been sleeping outside.
Davies then outlined to the jury what the donor said during his police interviews.
He said a friend of his at the market in Lagos put him in touch with someone and a man called from England and said “he would be able to come to London, have a better life, and get work to send money home.”
The donor said he had medical tests done in Nigeria but thought it was linked to the visa and had no idea he was being lined up for a kidney transplant.
Davies said: “He gives an account that he only understood he was there for a kidney donation when this was related to him by Dr. Dupont. Whether or not you accept this, it does seem clear that he did not understand the risks until they were explained, was frightened and upset, and relieved when Dr. Dupont reassured him it would not proceed.”
Davies said: “He says that once it was clear the transplant would not go ahead he was treated badly by Obeta. He was working in a job—cleaning a playground and toilets—arranged by Obeta but did not receive the money.”
“There came a point when he heard them discussing the possibility of doing the transplant in Nigeria. He says someone came and examined his abdomen and at this point he became scared and decided to leave Obeta’s address [in southeast London].”
Davies said when Beatrice Ekweremadu was arrested and interviewed, after speaking to a solicitor, she gave a prepared statement.
In it she said: “I live in Nigeria. My daughter Sonia needs a kidney transplant. Therefore my husband and I made some enquiries to find a donor. [The donor] was found as a match by a third party. He was tested in hospital in Nigeria and we were made aware that he is a match and could be a donor for our daughter.”
The statement went on: “He agreed to be a donor and on that basis he instructed a third party to make an application for a visa in order for him to come to the UK as my daughter is here in the UK. A medical visa was granted. Once he arrived in the UK he was further tested at hospital. Regrettably they informed us that he wasn’t a match. I was obviously devastated and I went back to Nigeria. I had no further communication with [the donor].”
On Monday, Davies told the jury Ike Ekweremadu and his wife were “significant figures in Nigerian society” and he had a “significant degree of wealth.”
He said Sonia had a serious kidney condition called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis with nephrotic syndrome, which could only be cured in the long-term by a kidney transplant.
The trial continues.
