A Nigerian senator accused of conspiring to bring a man to the UK to harvest an organ will be tried in May 2023, according to a date set Thursday August 4 by British justice. Awaiting his trial, Ike Ekweremadu, 60, senator of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP, opposition) and former deputy leader of the Senate, remains in detention.
He appeared in a preliminary hearing at the Old Bailey criminal court in London on Thursday via video link from Wandsworth prison in the south of the British capital, where he is being held. Dressed in a red T-shirt, he only spoke to confirm his name.
Mr. Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice Nwanneka Ekweremadu, 55, were charged in June with “conspiracy to organize and/or facilitate the travel of a person for the purpose of exploitation”, in this case the removal of organs. These indictments followed an investigation by the Metropolitan Police of London, alerted in May to potential violations of the law on slavery.
A doctor arrested
According to the prosecution, the couple wanted to remove a kidney from a 21-year-old man to be transplanted into their daughter. The man reportedly refused to consent to the procedure after undergoing medicals at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead and notified the police. Obinna Obeta, a 50-year-old doctor, was also arrested and appeared via video link from Belmarsh prison, where he is being held. He was kept in detention.
Beatrice Ekweremadu, who had been released on bail, sat in the dock wearing black slacks, a cardigan and a headscarf and spoke only to confirm her name. The public gallery of this London court was filled with supporters and observers, including political figures from Nigeria. A next hearing has been set for October 31. The defendants will then have to indicate whether they plead guilty or not. The trial, which is expected to last up to four weeks, is due to begin on May 2, 2023.
Mr. Ekweremadu, elected to the Senate in 2003, had tried to present himself as a candidate of the PDP for the post of governor of the State of Enugu (south-east), from which he originates, but he withdrew after having failed to win the party’s support, local media reported. The accusations against him caused a stir in the Nigerian media and on social media, with some expressing sympathy for his family while others were outraged that a senator was accused of trying to breach the law. UK law.
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