Massob says organ harvesting promotes child trafficking and wanton killing across the southeast

PAN-Igbo group the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob) has pledged to commit former deputy senate president Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife to the ancestors for speedy trial for being involved in child trafficking.

Yesterday, Senator Ekweremadu and his wife Beatrice Ekweremadu were arrested by London's Metropolitan Police on suspicion of child trafficking and planned organ harvesting. They were charged before the at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court with conspiracy to arrange/facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting.

Both of them were denied bail and have been remanded in custody until July 7 when the case will next be heard. Responding to the development, Massob said that they did is sacrilegious, vowing to commit the Ekweremadus to Igbo ancestors for a speedy trial and judgment to serve as a deterrent to many of their likes who are in the business of organ harvesting, which it said had increased the wanton killings across the southeast geo-political zone.

Massob spokesman Edeson Samuel, condemned the actions of the senator and his wife, who were arrested with $20,000 in their possession. If convicted, the couple could get a maximum life sentence at the worst or 12 months imprisonment or a fine or both at the other end of the spectrum under the United Kingdom’s Modern Slavery Act 2015.

One source close to the case said: “One of his children needs an organ transplant. Probably, the arrangement was not tidy in the face of British laws.”

On Tuesday, Senator Ekweremadu and his wife were arrested at Heathrow Airport en route to Istanbul in Turkey. They were subsequently arraigned before a UK Magistrate court yesterday in relation to a homeless 15-year-old boy who was brought to the UK by them off the streets of Lagos, Nigeria.

“They are both charged with conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the travel of another person with the aim of exploitation, namely organ harvesting. They conspired to bring a child from Nigeria, a 15-year-old boy to harvest his organ and the boy was promised a better life.

"The prosecutors told the court that the former deputy senate president procured a passport for the boy and claimed he was 21 years old but discovered that he was 15 years old. The court learnt that Ekweremadu’s daughter had been battling with kidney failure and has been on dialysis for a while and needed a kidney transplant, so the boy was brought in to give one of his kidneys to the daughter,” the source added.

Reports said the doctor billed to perform the transplant suspended it after learning that the boy identified as Ukpo David, was a minor. As a result, the Royal Free Hospital in London cancelled the procedure and returned the boy to the custody of the Ekweremadu family who treated him badly and he had to run away and sleep on the streets for two days.

“It was while sleeping on the streets that the boy went to the police who investigated the matter and arrested the Ekweremadus at Heathrow Airport on their way to Istanbul, Turkey, to procure another organ because they were unable to harvest the boy’s organ. Ekweremadu was arrested with $20,000 in his possession which has been seized,” the source added.