Mrs. Beatrice Ekweremadu, wife of former Deputy Senate President Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has been released from prison in the United Kingdom.
A source informed NaijaTimesUSA that Beatrice, who had been serving a five-year prison sentence in the UK, returned to Nigeria on Tuesday and is currently in Abuja.
While Beatrice has been freed, her husband, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, remains incarcerated in the UK, serving a 10-year sentence for his involvement in the highly publicized organ harvesting case.
The case, which captured significant media attention, involved the Ekweremadu couple, Dr. Obinna Obeta, and their daughter Sonia Ekweremadu, who was also named as a defendant.
The Ekweremadus and Dr. Obeta were accused of conspiring to arrange an illegal kidney transplant for Sonia, who is 25 years old and suffers from kidney failure.
The defendants allegedly planned to traffick a 21-year-old street trader from Lagos, Nigeria, to London in an attempt to harvest his organ for Sonia. The young man was purportedly falsely presented as Sonia’s cousin to convince medical professionals at the Royal Free Hospital to carry out the £80,000 private procedure.
Further allegations state that the victim was promised a financial reward for donating his kidney, which would have made the transplant unlawful.
The victim, a telephone parts vendor, was recruited in Lagos and later transported to London in February 2022. During his time in London, he was kept under the control of the accused.
The plot came to light when the victim walked into Staines Police Station on May 5, 2022, and reported that he had been trafficked from Nigeria to the UK under the guise of providing a kidney for Sonia.
He revealed that he underwent kidney screening at The Royal Free Hospital, but the consultant raised suspicions about the circumstances surrounding the transplant and decided that the procedure could not go ahead.
Meanwhile, in Beatrice Ekweremadu’s hometown of Mpu, located in the Aninri Local Government Area of Enugu State, her release has sparked celebrations among family members and the local community.