Nigeria: No, Nigerian Senator Ike Ekweremadu Not 'Serving 10-Year Jail Term' in the UK, Yet to Be Sentenced

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(file photo).
28 April 2023
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Allwell Okpi

IN SHORT: A kidney transplant saga ended with the senator and two co-conspirators convicted. But the three have not yet been sentenced.

A video circulating on Facebook claims that Nigerian senator Ike Ekweremadu is serving a 10-year prison sentence in the United Kingdom.

"Breaking News Ike Ekeremadu Serving 10 year Jail terms in United Kingdom," reads the caption to the video.

The same claim is made in a video posted on 19 April 2023 and shared more than 8,200 times. The same or very similar versions were also posted here, here, here and here.

Is this true about the senator?

Still to be sentenced

In June 2022, Ekweremadu and his wife Beatrice were arrested in London and charged with organ harvesting. At time of publication they remain in custody and have been charged under the UK's 2015 modern slavery act.

In March 2023, the couple and a Nigerian doctor, Obinna Obeta, were found guilty of trafficking a street trader from Lagos, Nigeria to the UK for a kidney transplant.

The victim, a 21-year-old man, went to the police before the kidney transplant. The operation was allegedly meant to save the life of the Ekweremadus' sick daughter, Sonia.

The Ekweremadus and Obeta will be sentenced on 5 May 2023.

Under the UK's anti-slavery law, the three could be sentenced to "imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years".

But it is not yet certain what the sentence will be.

Read the original story, with links and other resources.
Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. Twitter @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org

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