The father of Ukpo Nwamini David — the young man at the center of former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu’s UK organ trafficking case — has died.
Family members say he passed away on Sunday afternoon, allegedly from heartbreak after years of being unable to see or speak with his son since the 2022 incident.
Confirming the death to standarddailypress on Monday, David’s brother, Boniface Nwamini Ukpo, said the family had been cut off from him ever since he was taken to the United Kingdom.
“Yes, my father died yesterday (Sunday) at about 12 p.m. It’s so sad that since the incident happened in 2022, we have not spoken with my brother, David,” Boniface said. “My father had been sick over the saga, and yesterday he finally passed away.”
David had been taken from Lagos to the UK in what prosecutors described as an illegal bid to harvest his kidney for a transplant for Ekweremadu’s seriously ill daughter.
In 2023, a London court sentenced Ekweremadu to nine years and eight months in prison — the first conviction under the UK’s illegal organ-harvesting laws. His wife, Beatrice, received four years and six months, while Nigerian doctor Obinna Obeta, identified as the middleman, was jailed for 10 years.
All three were found guilty of conspiring to arrange David’s travel for the purpose of organ removal.
