Despite pleas from cross sections of Nigerians, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo for leniency, the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, UK, has sentenced Ike Ekweremadu, Nigeria’s former Deputy Senate President, to nine years and eight months in prison for organ harvesting.
Ekweremadu’s wife, Beatrice, was handed four years and six months jail term during the sentencing on Friday, BBC reports.
On March 23, the jury pronounced a guilty verdict on the senator, his wife, Beatrice, and Obinna Obeta, a doctor who acted as the middleman.
The jury held that they conspired to bring the 21-year-old at the centre of the matter to London to exploit him for his kidney.
The verdict is the first of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 of the UK.