Former Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice, and medical middleman Doctor Obinna Obeta have been sentenced to prison for their involvement in an organ harvesting conspiracy.
The charges were brought against them by a UK court, and they were found guilty in March.
The Ekweremadus’ daughter Sonia, who has a serious kidney condition, was cleared of the same charge and wept as the verdict was read.
At the sentencing hearing on Friday, Mr Justice Johnson handed down the sentences.
Ekweremadu was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison, while his wife received a sentence of four years and six months.
Dr Obeta received the longest sentence of 10 years in prison.
The case marks the first time that defendants have been convicted under the Modern Slavery Act of an organ harvesting conspiracy.
The prosecution alleged that a 21-year-old street trader was offered up to £7,000 and promised a better life in the UK for donating his kidney to Sonia Ekweremadu in an £80,000 private procedure at London’s Royal Free Hospital.
While it is lawful to donate a kidney, it becomes criminal if money or another material advantage is rewarded.
The donor did not understand until his first appointment with a consultant at the hospital that he was there for a kidney transplant, the Old Bailey was told.
In sentencing, Mr Justice Johnson told the defendants: “In each of your cases, the offence you committed is so serious that neither a fine nor a community sentence can be justified.”
