A wealthy Nigerian couple plotted to bring a poor street trader to the UK to harvest his kidney for their daughter, a court heard.

Ike and Beatrice Ekweremadu, their daughter Sonia and medical “middleman” Dr Obinna Obeta allegedly conspired to exploit the unsuspecting 21-year-old man, who was promised up to £7,000 and a better life.

It is claimed Sonia Ekweremadu, 25, was to have received his kidney in a transplant operation at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead.

Opening their Old Bailey trial today, Hugh Davies KC said Ike, 60, a senior senator in the Nigerian Parliament, and his 56-year-old wife were “significant figures” in Nigerian society.

But the court heard Sonia had a “significant and deteriorating” kidney condition.

Mr Davies described the Ekweremadus as “a close, open and loving family”, with an understandable interest in Sonia’s medical treatment.

But he told jurors the case was about what the defendants were prepared to do to cure Sonia’s kidney condition.

While it is lawful for someone to donate a kidney, it is criminal to reward someone for doing so, the court heard.

The donor, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was allegedly recruited in Lagos, Nigeria.

At the time he was making a few pounds a day selling telephone parts from a cart in public markets, the court heard.

When found to be a suitable match, he was transported to London in February 2022 under the “direction and financial control” of the alleged plotters, Mr Davies said.

The young man was purported to be Sonia’s cousin, with the fake family connection used to get a temporary visa to travel to the UK.

He was coached to give false answers to doctors at the Royal Free Hospital and Sonia was “singing from the same hymn sheet” to create a fake family history, Mr Davies said.

Under the agreement, the young man was to be paid either £2,400 or £7,000 in Nigerian Naira plus the promise of work and the opportunity to be in the United Kingdom, the prosecution alleged.

But jurors were told the alleged donor did not understand until his first appointment with a consultant at the Royal Free Hospital that he was there for a kidney transplant.

He was said by the consultant to be “visibly relieved” on being told the transplant would not go ahead.

The jury was told Sonia Ekweremadu has not had a kidney transplant and remains on dialysis.

The Ekweremadus, from Willesden Green, and Obeta, 50, from Southwark, deny conspiring to arrange or facilitate the travel of the young man with a view to exploitation between August 1 2021 and May 5 2022.

The court heard how Dr Obeta was a former classmate of Sonia’s uncle Isaac “Diwe” Ekweremadu, who is alleged to have taken part in the conspiracy but is not on trial as he is in Nigeria.

In 2021, Dr Obeta had himself undergone a kidney transplant in the UK, with the donor travelling from Nigeria and said in a sworn affidavit to be his cousin, jurors were told.

The 21-year-old donor was among several recruited at the Lagos street market by an acquaintance who turned out to be Dr Obeta’s kidney donor, the court was told.

Mr Davies said that the young man believed he was being taken to London to work and the tests were for a visa.

The prosecutor said Dr Obeta was controlling the process in Nigeria and regularly updating Diwe Ekweremadu, who was, in turn, updating his family.

Mr Davies told jurors that messages referred to the nameless donor only as “this guy” and made no mention of any act of “extraordinary selfless altruism”.

He added: “In the real world altruistic donors are an exceptionally rare commodity: those willing to provide organs for reward are not. They are often young, intrinsically economically disadvantaged, young men.”

The trial continues.

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