Former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice and doctor, Obinna Odeta bagged various prison sentences in London, United Kingdom (UK) on Friday.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Ekweremadu was sentenced to 9 years and 8 months, his wife sentenced to 4 years and 6 months, while Dr Odeta was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the UK.
They were convicted at London’s Old Bailey criminal court for plotting to harvest a man’s kidney for his sick daughter, Sonia.
The judge, Jeremy Johnson, in sentencing Ekweremadu, described the act as “despicable” and that they took advantage of the “poverty, misery and desperation” in Nigeria.
“People-trafficking across international borders for the harvesting of human organs is a form of slavery,” judge Johnson said as he handed down the jail term.
“It treats human beings and their body parts as commodities to be bought and sold,” he added, noting the sentence represented a “substantial fall from grace” for Ekweremadu.
Recall that Sonia had been cleared of the same charge after jurors deliberated for nearly 14 hours in March.
On Friday, she waved to her parents as they were led out of the court. Neither of them showed any emotion as they were sentenced.
TNG reports this would be the first UK case of its kind