Ekweremadu’s sentencing first under UK’s modern slavery Act 2015

The former deputy senate president Ike Ekweremadu will be spending the next nine years and eight months behind bars.

This follows the Judgment of the central criminal Courts also known as the Old Bailey which sentenced Mr Ekweremadu, his wife and Dr Obinna Obeta to jail for organ harvesting.

It was a dark day for the Ekweremadu’s as a judge at the central Criminal Court also known as the old bailey sentenced former deputy Senate President, his wife Beatrice and a doctor Obinna Obeta to jail.

The three were found guilty at the old bailey of conspiring to arrange the travel of a young man with a view of exploiting him for his body parts.

The Ekweremadu’s 25 year old daughter Sonia has a severe kidney disease. It was for her the donor was sourced and brought down to the UK.

Things began to take a sour turn when the Ekweremadu’s were arrested as they arrived at Heathrow Airport on June 21
last year.

After months of pre-trial, the trial commenced on January 31 2023 and lasted about six weeks accumulating in a duty verdict against Mr Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice and Doctor, Obinna Obeta.

At a sentence hearing on Friday Mr Ekweremadu was jailed for nine years and eight months, his wife was sentenced to four years and six months imprisonment while Mr Obeta received a 10-year prison term.

The conviction is the first under the UK’s modern slavery Act 2015.

The ECOWAS Parliament, Nigerian Parliament and former president Olusegun Obasanjo among others pleaded for leniency for the Ekweremadu’s. The judge Justice Johnson acknowledged a 51 paged document pleading for leniency for Mr Ekweremadu and highlighting how he is a person of outstanding character.

He goes on to say while it is lawful to donate a kidney, it becomes criminal if money or other material advantage is rewarded.