Nigerian senator's organ harvesting trial starts in UK

London: Nigeria's former deputy senate president, his wife and daughter appeared in a London court on Monday accused of plotting to harvest a street trader's kidney.

Ike and Beatrice Ekweremadu, their 25-year-old daughter Sonia and a doctor, Obinna Obeta, allegedly conspired to exploit the man for his organ.

It was allegedly intended for Sonia, who remains on dialysis with a kidney condition, in return for up to £7,000 ($8,430) and the promise of a better life in Britain for the 21-year-old trader.

All four were in London's famous Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey, for the start of the trial, and had previously pleaded not guilty.

In Britain, it is legal to donate a kidney, but not for reward. Prosecutors say regardless of whether the Lagos street trader gave his consent, a crime was committed by the wealthy Nigerians.

The accuser -- who cannot be named -- is said to have raised the alarm after finally refusing to consent to the procedure, following preliminary tests at a north London hospital.

He had been coached to give false answers to doctors at the hospital, and Sonia was "singing from the same hymn sheet" to create a fake family history linking the pair as cousins, prosecutor Hugh Davies said.

"In the real world, altruistic donors are an exceptionally rare commodity: those willing to provide organs for reward are not," he told the court.

"They are often young, intrinsically economically disadvantaged, young men."

The Ekweremadus and the doctor are accused of conspiracy to arrange the travel of another person with a view to exploitation, under UK legislation on modern slavery.

The offence is alleged to have taken place between August 2021 and May 2022.

Ike Ekweremadu, 60, is a senator for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party for Enugu state in southeast Nigeria.

The trial is expected to last seven weeks.