An Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court in the United Kingdomon Thursday denied the former senate president, Mr. Ike Ekweremadu and wife Beatrice, bail over their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to arrange or facilitate o bring a child into the country to allegedly harvest the said child’s organs.
The UK Guardian had earlier reported that the suspects were identified as Beatrice Nwanneka Ekweremadu, 55, and Ike Ekweremadu, 60, from Nigeria.
The charge involves arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting, the Met said in a statement.
The investigation was launched after detectives were alerted to potential offences under modern slavery legislation in May 2022, the force said.
When they were arraigned on Thursday, the court refused to grant them bail but ordered that they should be remanded till July 7.
In a statement confirming the arrest, the Metropolitan Police had said the pair were charged to court on Thursday following an investigation by the police’ specialist crime team.
According to Arise TV, the prosecutors said the Ekweremadus were being charged for bringing a 15-year-old boy from Nigeria to the UK with the claim that he was to be given a better life in the UK but was actually to harvest his organ.
The prosecutors reportedly informed the court that Ekweremadu procured a passport for the boy and claimed he was 21 years old but the prosecutors discovered that he was 15 years old.
According to the prosecutors, the Ekweremadus have a daughter who has a kidney-related disease and has been on dialysis for quite some time.
They added that they believe the plan was to use an organ from the boy on their daughter who appears to need a kidney transplant.
Arise News reported that Ekweremadu and his wife had separate legal representations and prayed the court to release them on bail but their prayer was dismissed by the Magistrate.
The couple surrendered their passports to the UK government.
