Sonia Ekweremadu Reacts To Parents’ Conviction

Sonia Ekweremadu, daughter of Nigeria’s former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has reacted to the sentencing of her parents in the United Kingdom.

CityNews earlier reported that the Nigerian lawmaker was sent to jail in the UK for nine years and eight months by Justice Jeremy Johnson.

They were found guilty of conspiring to bring a market trader in Lagos to the UK for the purpose of harvesting his kidney for the use of the politician’s 25-year-old daughter.

Ekweremadu’s wife Beatrice was handed 4 years, six months jail term, while the doctor involved in the case of organ trafficking got a 10-year jail term with his medical license suspended.

Recall that the Ekweremadus case marked the first time defendants have been convicted under the Modern Slavery Act for organ harvesting.

Ekweremadu and his family were arrested by the London Metropolitan Police in June 2022 and subsequently arraigned in court for conspiring to bring the victim to London to exploit him for his kidney.

In an interview with the BBC shortly after the conviction, Sonia stated that she feels guilty about her parents’ conviction of conspiracy to harvest a human organ.

She said: “I do not have a hand in all the medical activities, my family is the one handling everything

“I don’t think things will ever be the same, already I feel guilty, because I feel all these happened because of me.”

The 25-year-old, however, disagreed with the conviction of her parents.

She said: “I understand the conviction, however, I personally disagree with it. That is from a very biased perspective as their daughter, I will obviously always back my parents.

“However, the law has taken its course, we just need to move on as one family.”

Sonia said she is undergoing dialysis, describing her disease as Nephrotic syndrome (a kind of kidney disorder that makes the body pass too much protein in the urine).

She further explained that she has two options “which is to stay on dialysis for the rest of her life or undergo a kidney transplant.”