The daughter of an embattled Nigerian senator accused of trafficking a homeless man into the UK to harvest his organs has appeared in court.
Sonia Ekweremadu, 25, is facing trial at the Old Bailey alongside her father Ike Ekweremadu, 60, mother Beatrice Ekweremadu, 56, and 50-year-old doctor Obinna Obeta.
The four are charged with conspiracy to arrange the travel of another person with a view to exploitation contrary to the Criminal Law Act 1977 between from August 1, 2021, to May 5.
Prosecutors claim they plotted with another family member, Isaac Ekweremadu, to transit a 21-year-old from Lagos to London to take his kidney for Sonia.
Sonia was diagnosed in 2019 with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a rare kidney disease, and is on dialysis, she said on Instagram.
The four were arrested after the alleged victim, who lived on the streets of Lagos, told police in Staines, north-west Surrey, he was the victim of trafficking.
The man told officers he was brought to the UK on February 20 and was taken to London’s Royal Free Hospital for tests he never consented to.
He refused to let medics take his kidney and was taken back to the house he had been staying in and ‘treated effectively as a slave’.
The man escaped and after living on the streets for three days told the police, the court was told.
Ike, the former deputy president of the Senate of Nigeria, and his wife were arrested at Heathrow Airport after flying in from Turkey.
Sonia and her mother are on bail, while Ike and Obeta, from Southwark, south London, remain remanded in custody.
Isaac also appears on the indictment but is outside the jurisdiction.
No pleas were entered today amid a legal argument but Judge Mark Lucraft set another hearing for December 16 and brought forward the defendants’ trial from May to January 31.
The trial will last four weeks.
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