Reactions have trailed a UK court judgement that found former Nigerian Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Beatrice, alongside a medical doctor, Dr. Obinna Obeta guilty of facilitating the travel of a young man to the United Kingdom with the intention of exploiting him for his kidney.
All three of them risk 25 years in prison each.
The report was confirmed by The Guardian UK and Sky News.
Ekweremadu and his wife were arrested in the United Kingdom on charges of trafficking a young man into the country to harvest his kidney.
The conviction on Thursday is the first verdict under the Modern Slavery Act, and Justice Jeremy Johnson is expected to pass a sentence at a later date.
According to prosecutor Hugh Davies KC, the Ekweremadu’s treated the young man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward”.
He added that they entered into an “emotionally cold commercial transaction” with the man.
Also, Davies emphasized that it was not a defense to say that Ekweremadu acted out of love for his daughter, as her clinical needs cannot come at the expense of exploiting someone in poverty.
Sky News reports the judgement as the first of its kind in the UK.
