Sonia Ekweremadu, the daughter of convicted former Nigerian deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, on Friday during an interview with BBC said that she feels guilty that her parents were jailed in an efforts to proffer solution to her health challenge, while questioning the judgement, describing it as bias.
The Informant247 had reported that in March 2023, a UK jury found that Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice, and a doctor, Obinna Obeta, criminally conspired to bring a 21-year-old Lagos street trader to London to exploit him for his kidney, saying young man was falsely presented as Sonia’s cousin in a failed bid to persuade doctors to carry out an £80,000 private procedure at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
Ekweremadu was sentenced to nine years and eight months, Beatrice was sentenced to four years and six months in prison, while “middleman” medical doctor Obeta received a 10-year prison term.
However, Sonia, who is currently undergoing dialysis, was also on trial alongside her parents and not convicted, said that she and her siblings were surprised when the police knocked on their door and informed them of their purpose.
Sonia said she disagreed with the conviction of her parents.
She said, “I understand the conviction, however, I personally disagree with it. That is from a very bias 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,” she added.
She described her disease as Nephrotic syndrome, a kind of kidney disorder that makes the body pass too much protein in urine.
When asked about the man who was supposed to donate his kidney to her, she said she was not involved in the process.
She said, “I didn’t have a hand in it, it was mostly my family that handled everything about my medical side.
“I don’t think things will ever be the same, already I feel guilty, because I feel all these happened because of me,” she added.
