Organ Harvest: Police Arraign UK-based Nigerian Doctor for Allegedly Colluding with Ike Ekweremadu, Wife

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A doctor has been accused of plotting with former deputy senate president, Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, to traffic a homeless man into the UK to harvest a kidney for their daughter, a court heard today. 

Obinna Obeta, 50, from Southwark, south London, is charged under the Modern Slavery Act with arranging the travel of a 21-year-old man with a view to him being exploited between August last year and this May. 

A second charge alleges he conspired with Ekweremadu to arrange or facilitate the travel of the man with a view to him being exploited, namely organ harvesting.

It is alleged that 60-year-old Ekweremadu and his 55-year-old wife brought the 21-year-old man, David Ukpo, from Nigeria to the UK.

Prosecutors claim they planned to have his kidney removed so it could be given to their daughter.

The man is said to have refused to consent to the procedure after undergoing tests at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, north-west London.

The Ekweremadus allegedly treated him as a slave before he escaped and went to Staines police station in Surrey.

The couple were arrested at Heathrow Airport on June 21 after arriving on a flight from Turkey and appeared at the Old Bailey today for a bail hearing.

The couple deny wrongdoing or that there was a criminal conspiracy, and claim no exploitation occurred.

Obeta, of Hillbeck Close, Southwark, southeast London, appeared at Bexley Magistrates’ Court on 13 July. 

He was charged with arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation and conspiring together with Ike Ekweremadu to arrange or facilitate the travel of another person with a view to exploitation.

Prosecutor Tim Probert-Wood said previously that the case involved “exploitation and the harvesting of an organ.”

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