Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, denied on Wednesday that he offered money to a prospective kidney donor in order to rescue his ailing daughter, Sonia.
The senator is on trial for allegedly manipulating a 21-year-old to come to London and donate a kidney.
Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice, their daughter Sonia, 25, and an acquaintance, Dr Obinna Obeta, 50, are accused of violating modern slavery laws.
The Ekweremadus were accused of offering £7,000 to a 21-year-old trader whom they flew to London and falsely presented as Sonia’s cousin in order to collect his kidney.
UK’s Daily Mail reports that in the Senator’s opening addresses at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, lawyers for the defendant, Martin Hicks, insisted they believed the donor was acting “altruistically”.
“Be alive please to the possible cultural differences between this country and that of Nigeria, particularly to altruistic donation.
“We say the issue in this case is simple – did there exist an agreement to exploit (the donor) in the way the prosecution allege and if so, who was a party to it?
“In Nigerian society, there is an expression ‘everyone is each other’s keeper’ and the altruistic donation of organs is not regarded there as such a rare event as it is in this country.
“He will also say he was told (the donor) had offered to altruistically donate a kidney to Sonia,” Hicks told jurors.
Hicks stated that Ekweremadu did not attend any Royal Free Hospital appointments in February and March of last year, leading to the conclusion that the donor was unfit.
He added, “In April 2022 and with the assistance of Diwe, he continued the family search for a suitable donor for his daughter Sonia and that search continues.
“We question whether (the donor) was exploited as suggested by the prosecution.”
Speaking on behalf of Sonia, her lawyer, John Femi-Ola, said, “She suffers from a very severe kidney disease. She receives dialysis treatment three days per week.
“The treatment is for the rest of her life unless there is a transplant in the future which now must be much in doubt given the publicity this case has attracted.”
Ekweremadu and his wife were detained in June 2022 at Heathrow Airport in London and were instantly prosecuted before a Magistrate’s Court for allegedly bringing a young man into the country to harvest his organs.
He has been in custody of the UK authorities since June 23, while his wife was granted bail by a criminal court in London.