Of late, Nigeria has witnessed a rise in the number of reported cases of organ harvesting in the country, with the removal of organs such as the kidneys, liver and heart, among others. Among all the organs, kidneys have been noted as the most commonly illegally harvested organs due to their high demand and survival rate.
reported how a former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, made news in March this year when he was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison in the UK for being the “driving force” in a plot to harvest a kidney for his sick daughter from a young man he had trafficked to London. Ekweremadu, 60, and his wife, Beatrice, 56, and Dr.
also reported that a businessman, Alhaji Kamal, had accused Kekere of harvesting one of his wife’s kidneys and subjecting the woman to chronic pain in the last five years. Narrating how the kidney was removed, the husband said, “Sometimes in January 2018, my wife, Kehinde Kamal, complained of pains around her abdomen, and a so-called Dr. Noah Kekere of Murma Hospital in Jos North LGA diagnosed her and said she was suffering from appendicitis and needed to be operated on.
about the matter, a medical expert, Dr Usha Anenga, the Chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Benue State, noted that illegal organ harvesting was being fueled by the poverty level in the country. Anenga also lamented the absence of guidelines specifically addressing organ donation in Nigeria. He advised the government to consult widely and come up with a unified document that will regulate organ donation in Nigeria.