Matilda Omonaiye/
The mother of 22-year-old Samuel Ezekiel has recounted the chilling moment she learnt, not from her son, doctors or relatives, but through an unexpected telephone call, that one of his kidneys had allegedly been removed.
“I was in the shop one day, and someone called me to say they heard that my son’s kidney had been removed,” she told journalists on Friday.
For the distraught mother, the call opened the door to an extraordinary story involving alleged deception by a trusted friend, a secret hospital procedure, a changed identity, suspected forged documents and a police investigation into what authorities describe as an organ-harvesting and human-trafficking network operating around Abuja and Nasarawa State.
Ezekiel alleges that his friend, 23-year-old Emmanuel Ode, deceived him into going to a hospital before he was eventually taken to Wellington Hospital, Life Camp, Abuja, where his kidney was removed on April 24, 2026.
According to him, Ode assured him that giving up a kidney would neither damage his health nor prevent him from living a normal life.
But perhaps one of the most disturbing elements of his account is his claim that his identity was changed to “Hassan Abubakar” during the process.
Ezekiel alleged that an affidavit was prepared at the Federal High Court before he was taken to the hospital for the procedure.
Police later alleged that Ode recruited Ezekiel and that the kidney was harvested for $1,250, said to be equivalent to about N1.7 million.
The Nigeria Police Force subsequently paraded Ode alongside two doctors and another suspect over the alleged organ-harvesting operation.
The other suspects were identified as Dr Benjamin Oyime, 48, a nephrologist and consultant to Wellington Hospital; Dr Daniel Otukpa, 53, a nephrologist and Acting Director of Clinical Services at the hospital; and David Idoko, 25.
Police said operatives of the Special Tactical Squad arrested the suspects during a sting operation at Auta Balefi in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State on August 19.
Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Ani Iniedu, said Ode allegedly admitted during interrogation to recruiting victims under false pretences.
Investigators further alleged that the network preyed on vulnerable and poorly educated young people, exploiting their financial difficulties to secure them for organ-removal procedures.
Police also alleged that documents, including names, National Identification Numbers, birth certificates, age declarations, affidavits and consent letters, were falsified to facilitate the procedures.
Mother: I Knew Nothing About It
While all this was allegedly taking place, Ezekiel’s mother said she had no idea what had happened to her son.
After receiving the startling telephone call, she contacted another of her sons in an attempt to establish the truth. He initially said he knew nothing about the matter.
She later learnt that her younger son had information about what allegedly happened.
“So, later, he told me that the junior one told him that Emmanuel took him to a hospital and then went and removed his kidney. So, that was how I went to the police station to report the matter,” she said.
Asked whether Ezekiel returned home with any money from the procedure, she replied emphatically: “No, no, no.”
Ezekiel, however, told journalists that he was paid in US dollars and handed the money to Ode for safekeeping before entering the theatre.
He alleged that after the surgery, Ode converted the money and spent part of it on two phones, two power banks and two Wi-Fi devices.
According to Ezekiel, Ode gave him one phone, one power bank and one Wi-Fi device and kept the other items.
He said he remained at the hospital for about a week after the surgery before being discharged. Ode allegedly took him to a hotel, where they stayed for two days, before the pair travelled to Cross River State and remained there for almost three months.
When Ezekiel later asked about the balance of the money, he alleged that Ode told him it had been spent.
In another bizarre twist, Ezekiel alleged that when they eventually lacked money to return to Abuja, Ode collected his phone and sold it to finance their journey.
Why His Mother Did Not Immediately Notice His Absence
Ezekiel’s mother explained that she did not immediately become alarmed about his whereabouts because he had earlier left her home in Nyanya, Abuja, to stay with his father in Ota, Ogun State.
She said her son had completed secondary school but the family could not afford to immediately finance further education.
Instead, arrangements were made for him to acquire vocational and computer-related skills.
“When he finished secondary school, he came back. He was with my elder sister in our village, where he was going to school,” she said.
“At that time, I didn’t have money to send him to another school. So, we paid money for him to learn computer skills.”
She said Ezekiel subsequently moved to his father’s side in Ota and was also placed with a Ghanaian to learn 3D and painting skills.
‘He Was Walking Around With the Stitches’
The case took an even more disturbing turn when the mother discovered the state of her son’s surgical wound.
According to her, police officers advised her to take Ezekiel back to the hospital because the stitches from the operation were still in his body.
The wound, she said, had begun producing pus.
“The police then said I should take him back to the hospital because he was walking around with the stitches without removing them. When it started producing pus, they said he should go back and have the stitches removed,” she recalled.
She subsequently returned with him to the hospital, where the stitches were removed.
Police Widen Organ-Trafficking Investigation
Police said investigations into the suspected organ-harvesting network were continuing, with efforts underway to track down other individuals allegedly connected to the operation.
The case forms part of a broader investigation triggered by allegations brought to public attention by social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan.
Otse had disclosed that a young man approached his NGO with a medical report suggesting that his left kidney was missing.
Police said subsequent investigations uncovered allegations involving vulnerable young people in communities around Nasarawa State and the Federal Capital Territory.
The FCT Police Command has, however, cautioned against sensational or unverified claims suggesting that kidney selling is widespread among youths in Nyanya, Mararaba, Karu and surrounding communities.
The command said it had neither received nor verified claims circulating online that “nearly all” young people in the affected areas had sold their kidneys.
It urged members of the public with credible evidence of suspected organ trafficking to report such information to the police as investigators work to establish the full scale of the alleged network.
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