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Nigerian Senator Jailed Over Organ-Trafficking Plot

Ike Ekweremadu, 60, wanted a kidney for his daughter.

A senior Nigerian politician was sentenced to more than nine years in jail in the U.K. on Friday after being convicted of an organ-trafficking scheme. Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, 60, his wife, and a doctor were all convicted in March of bringing a young man to Britain with a plan to exploit him for his kidney. Ekweremadu and his spouse, Beatrice, 56, wanted to give the organ to their 25-year-old daughter, Sonia. The judge described the senator as the “driving force throughout” the scheme and sentenced him to nine years and eight months in prison. Dr. Obinna Obeta was handed a 10-year sentence for his role in the scheme to find a possible donor who was young and poor, while Beatrice was sentenced to four and a half years for her involvement.