Nigerian senator Ike Ekweremadu and his spouse Beatrice have been convicted of exploiting a younger man from a poor village by bringing him to London to donate a kidney. As they await sentencing, the BBC reveals particulars of the conspiracy.
Scholar Sonia Ekweremadu appeared to have a super life – rich mother and father on the coronary heart of Nigeria’s political system and a spot at a number one UK college – however she was additionally desperately sick and wanted a kidney transplant. Her dad, Ike Ekweremadu, paid fixers and middlemen hundreds of kilos to rearrange a donor.
Daniel, whose actual title can’t be reported for authorized causes, grew up in an enormous household in rural Nigeria, with out working water or electrical energy. Aged 15, he was promoting cell phone equipment from a barrow within the capital Lagos and sending cash house.
In 2022, aged 21, he walked right into a police station close to Heathrow, drained, homeless and terrified. He instructed police he had run away as a result of individuals needed to take one among his kidneys.
Whereas Daniel pushed his barrow, on the different finish of the Nigerian social ladder, Ike Ekweremadu and his spouse Beatrice grew more and more anxious about their daughter’s well being.
The Ekweremadus approached a intermediary, Dr Obinna Obeta, who in July 2021, had himself obtained a kidney donation, utilizing his connections to make it occur: a Nigerian physician buddy in Cambridge organised fundraising, a younger donor was present in Nigeria, and the non-public operation befell at London’s Royal Free Hospital.
The Ekweremadu household needed Dr Obeta to repeat the method for Sonia. Dr Obeta requested his donor to seek out somebody keen to offer a kidney for Sonia. He advised Daniel.
Daniel claimed Dr Obeta had promised to carry him to Britain and by no means talked about a kidney transplant. “I’ll dwell in his home and he’ll get work for me. He requested me to not inform those who I am coming to the UK,” Daniel instructed the courtroom. When Dr Obeta requested Daniel to bear medical assessments, Daniel thought they have been for a visa utility.
His UK visa was granted in January 2022. Excellent news, Daniel thought. Dr Obeta’s assist was as if “from God”, he mentioned. As soon as in London, nevertheless, he needed to sleep on Dr Obeta’s couch and says the physician used him as a houseboy.
Behind the scenes, Ike Ekweremadu, speaking by way of his brother, a physician, was being requested to pay Dr Obeta almost £2,000. Daniel was to obtain £6,000 for a kidney, whereas the operation, on the Royal Free non-public wing, would price £80,000.
Within the UK it’s a breach of the Human Tissue Act to pay or reward transplant donors who ought to, in any occasion, be members of the family or individuals with shut emotional ties to the recipient.
The Ekweremadus appeared conscious of this. They invited Daniel to lunch at a West African restaurant in south London, telling him to decorate up. Sonia was there and her image was taken with Daniel. Her mother and father and Dr Obeta have been pretending they have been cousins. Sonia was acquitted of being concerned within the conspiracy.
The donor, the recipient and senior kidney advisor Dr Peter Dupont all met for the primary time on 22 February 2022.
Daniel instructed the Previous Bailey jury: “He requested me did I do know I used to be going to do a kidney transplant. I used to be shocked. That was the primary time I heard in regards to the kidney transplant.” It was additionally, he mentioned, the primary day he had ever heard the title Ekweremadu: “I used to be crying and shaking.”
In a letter asking a colleague for a second opinion, Dr Dupont famous Daniel had not seen his supposed cousin Sonia for a decade and had “vital reservations about donation”.
In the meantime, the Ekweremadus and Dr Obeta despatched Daniel prompts to enhance his cowl story, paying a translator to educate the 21-year-old for his conferences with docs.
The second physician, Dr Philip Masson, was additionally involved Daniel couldn’t perceive the dangers of donating. Dr Dupont stopped the method, concluding Daniel was “medically borderline”, had a “tenuous relationship with the recipient”, lacked maturity and couldn’t fund his future medical care.
Inside weeks, Ike Ekweremadu was texting Sonia photos of recent potential donors. She replied: “The darkish one seems higher. The sunshine one seems like he’ll run away.”
In the meantime, Daniel was visited by two males at Dr Obeta’s south London flat. He mentioned one among them, a physician, pressed on his abdomen, leaving Daniel terrified they may attempt to take away a kidney as soon as he returned to Nigeria.
He ran to the police and Ike, Beatrice and Sonia have been arrested, together with Dr Obeta.
On the Previous Bailey, three of them have now been convicted of breaking fashionable slavery legal guidelines by bringing Daniel to the UK to offer a kidney for Sonia.
Medical hyperlink
Sonia’s transplant was halted – however the Royal Free had beforehand carried out the transplant obtained by Dr Obeta, who had additionally falsely claimed he was a relative of the donor.
A key determine in each instances was Cambridge-based NHS physician Chris Agbo, who runs a aspect enterprise serving to overseas sufferers get therapy in Britain.
It was Dr Agbo who fundraised for Dr Obeta’s transplant, organised conferences with the hospital and mentioned funds with the Royal Free hospital’s non-public wing.
He seems to have believed he ought to be rewarded for his firm’s work by the Royal Free.
On 8 December 2021, he wrote to Dr Dupont: “That is the third transplant affected person that my firm has dropped at the Royal Free… We have now by no means obtained any type of incentive from Royal Free Hospital. Hope this time my firm, Classic Well being Group, might be handled otherwise and pretty.”
No cash was paid. Dr Agbo is being investigated by each the police and the Normal Medical Council, which has imposed circumstances on his medical licence. When the BBC requested him what he knew about Daniel being dropped at the UK seemingly unaware of the potential transplant, he declined to reply.
The Human Tissue Authority says it has referred different questionable instances, not linked to Dr Agbo, to the police lately.
As for the younger Nigerian who was flown to London to offer a kidney for Dr Obeta, the BBC discovered him dwelling in a small east London flat with condensation on the home windows, nonetheless affected by ache and weak point, the results of giving up an important organ.