Justice Jeremy Johnson of the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey in the United Kingdom said on Friday that the UK-based Nigerian doctor, Obinna Obeta, who acted as a middleman for the Ekweremadu organs harvesting plot, had a kidney transplant in 2021.
The judge noted that Obeta learnt from his experience and was able to identify loopholes in the system in 2021.
“You Obina Obeta underwent a kidney transplant at the Royal Free Hospital in London in 2021.
“You said that you and your donor were cousins and that was a lie.
“The clinicians at the Royal Free and independent accessors at the human tissue authority were taken in by your lie. They believed that the donor was acting altruistically as a good Samaritan.
“The transplant went ahead. There is no evidence that the donor has been given the necessary aftercare. It is not necessary for me to make a finding as to whether you exploited the donor.
“But what is clear is that you learned from your experience that it was possible to manipulate and corrupt the regulatory system by using a fabricated affidavit, by lying about your relationship with the donor and by coaching the donor to lie,” he said.
Recall that the former three-time deputy senate president, Mr. Ike Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice and Obeta were convicted of conspiracy to organ trafficking.
Obeta got a 10-year sentence; Ekweremadu was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison, while Beatrice, got four years and six months jail term due to her “more limited involvement” in the act.
Commenting on the report, the head of research and investigations at Transparency International U.K., Steve Goodrich said: “If there are reasonable grounds to suspect these assets were bought with criminal funds then they should be investigated.
“Owning a home via an offshore company has seldom made much sense except for securing secrecy.”
