Criminal - He Was Told It Was a Job. It Was His Kidney They Wanted.

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

In 2021, a Nigerian man heard from a friend who offered him a job opportunity in the U.K. After he arrived he was taken to a hospital, where he found out that he wasn’t there for a job at all - but instead, for a kidney transplant. Today, Phoebe interviews journalist Alexis Okeowo about an organ trafficking scandal involving one of Nigeria’s most senior politicians. You can read Alexis Okeowo’s piece for the Guardian here. You can also watch this interview at youtube.com/criminalpodcast. Say hello on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Sign up for our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠occasional newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow the show and review us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for Criminal Plus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get behind-the-scenes bonus episodes of Criminal, ad-free listening of all of our shows, invitations to virtual events, special merch deals, and more. We also make ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠This is Love⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Phoebe Reads a Mystery⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠our online shop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaia and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll.

So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem. When WestJet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96.

Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. I think a lot of people can empathize with the fact that they were worried about their daughter. They wanted to save her life. but there is just such a callousness to the way they were speaking about sort of targeting young, poor, vulnerable men for their organs. I'm Phoebe Judge, and today I'm talking with journalist Alexis O'Kewo.

She recently wrote a piece for The Guardian titled The Body Snatchers about organ trafficking and an Nigerian politician who's now behind bars in the UK. Thanks very much for being here. Thanks for having me. So let's just start. With you telling me a little bit about the family at the center of this story, the Karamadu family, who are they? Yeah, the Karamadu's are and have been a well-known, well-regarded family in Nigeria.

The father, E.K., is a famous, was a famous politician. He was the long-running senator. His family was also very wealthy, like many Nigerian politicians. He had homes in Nigeria, the U.K., the UAE. And his children grew up in that lifestyle. They went to boarding schools in the U.K. And lived a very nice life. And his daughter, Sonia, as you say, had spent a large portion of her life in the UK going to boarding schools.

When did the family learn that Sonia was sick? So Sonia had graduated from university in the UK and then had gone on to start a master's degree. And early on in that time, she began to feel sick. She would have fainting spells. And so her family took her to the doctors, and they were told that she has a really severe form of kidney disease. And after a certain amount of valuations, they were told that she would either have to start dialysis or have an immediate kidney transplant. And so she started dialysis, but dialysis is something that really can only be done for so long.

The ultimate goal was that Sonia would need a new kidney. And what is the organ transplant system like in the UK? Is there a list like there is here in the U.S. where you get priority depending on the severity, your age? Yes, it's similar. But also like the U.S., there's a long, often a long time to get it, especially because there is a lot of demand for not that much supply. And the thing is, is that Sonia actually, you know, is Nigerian. You know, she was in the U.K. for schooling.

But in Nigeria, the kidney transplant process was basically non-existent. And so, you know, there was someone I talked to who said, basically if you get kidney disease in Nigeria, which is, quite prevalent in the country, actually. It's a death sentence because there's no real sort of transplant, you know, registry, sort of system. Most Nigerians who get transplants have to do them abroad. How long did Sony anticipate that she would be waiting for a new kidney in the UK? Well, I'm not sure, you know, how long she thought she'd wait, but I know that the typical waiting period is around three years,

I would say, from what I've read. But I know because of the severity of her disease, her family wanted a solution right away because you just don't know what will happen in those years of waiting. Rather than waiting on the list, Sonia's family decided to take a different path. What did they decide to do?

They decided to make a transplant happen as soon as possible. and to do that, they sought out someone they knew who had also gotten a transplant in the U.K. Who was this man that they reached out to? So the man they reached out to, so I'll say, so E.K., the senator, he was very close with his brother named D.U.A., who's a doctor, Nigerian doctor. And D.A. had been involved in getting Sonia to the doctors in the U.K., finding out her diagnosis. And so once they learned they needed a transplant, DUA then reached out to his old medical school classmate, a guy named Obina Obeta. And Obina Obeta is a Nigerian doctor who had kidney disease.

But then the year before had gotten a successful kidney transplant at a hospital in the UK called the Royal Free and seemed to be doing better. So Dewey reached out to him and said, how did you do that? Where did Obina get his kidney from? So Obina had reached out to, and we're still not sure how he found this man, but he had reached out to a young man who worked in a market in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, and had reached out to him with a proposition, basically saying that if this young man gave him his kidney, he would get him to the U.K., possibly pay him and introduce him to a new life.

So they're connected with Obina, and what does he offer to do for them? So Obina says, sure, I'll help for a fee. I'll help you find another young man, like the man who gave me my wife. kidney. How does he go about finding this kidney? So the young man who he reached out to, who I'll call Ben, worked in a market in Legos, as I said, before going to the UK to give his kidney. And while he had worked in that market in Lagos, he had friends, you know, other sellers. And one of those friends was a really young man named Daniel, or who I'm calling Daniel. And, you know, Daniel was 21 years old, had come from a village in southern Nigeria,

come to work in the market, was selling cell phone accessories in a wheelbarrow. You know, it was a sweet guy who looked, you know, like a teenager. And Ben reached out to his old friend, Daniel, and said, hey, I have an opportunity for you. You know, I'm in the U.K. Ben had sent Daniel and some of other friends videos of him dancing, having fun in London. And he says, hey, are you interested? Do you want to come to London, too? And what did he offer him in, I mean, what was to get a job?

Or did he mention come here for a kidney transplant? No, he basically implied that it was a job. And so Daniel said, sure, of course, I'm interested. And then the next thing was that Daniel heard from Obina. And Obina said, Obina kept it pretty vague. He said that he had an opportunity for him, again, applying that it was a job, that he would be like Ben. And he said, you just have to do a couple of things before we can get you the visa. And those things were medical tests.

And so for the next, I don't know, the couple of weeks, Daniel would travel to Abuja, the capital, to get various blood tests, medical tests. Under the guise of him thinking, this was all for his visa to go to the UK. Once he gets to England, he gets to the visa, gets to England, what happens? So he arrives and he meets for the first time, Obina, face to face. He's taken to Abina's house where Obina lives. with his wife and his children. His passport is taken away.

He's given a spot to sleep in the living room. He starts doing chores around the house. And he's not really sure what's going on. He just knows it doesn't feel right, but he's still thinking, okay, let me see where this goes. You know, Ben told me that this is an opportunity, so I'm going to see what happens. A few days later, he and... Obina go to have lunch with Sonia and Sonia's mother Beatrice. But he doesn't know who they are.

They just have lunch. They take a photo. And then shortly after that, Daniel was taken to the hospital for his first interview about the kidney transplant. So has anyone at this point said to him, you're actually here for, when was kidney, the word kidney first mentioned to Daniel? It's kind of remarkable how long it took, according to Daniel, for the word kidney to be mentioned, because he was in Nigeria. He took all these medical tests. We later discovered that on his visa application, it was written that, hi, my name is so-and-so. I'm going to the UK to donate a kidney to so-and-so, but he didn't know that because he didn't compile his own visa application.

Then he gets to a Beano's house. He's staying there. Again, nothing is being said, according to him. Then he actually has lunch with Sonia and her mother and Obina. And he says later in testimony that Sonia and her mother seemed scared, but there was still no direct conversation about what was happening. They took a photo, which we later learned was going to be used as proof that they somehow had a pre-existing relationship.

but he was just sort of, you know, he was going along. He was really a village boy, you know, and this big city just sort of along for the ride. And then finally we get to the hospital. And this is the time of his first interview with the doctor who was in charge of Sonia's case at the Royal Free Hospital. And he goes in and they've assigned him. an interpreter who is this Nigerian secretary at the hospital. And we later learned that Nigerian secretary is also working with Obina, and Obina and the Akaramadus to coach Daniel on what to say.

But again, this is all being done with how Daniel knowing what's happening. So basically, during this first interview, when the doctor starts talking about the transplant, is when Daniel is like, wait, what the hell is going? going on. And he later says he started getting scared. He almost started crying. He was like, wait, wait, wait, I don't know anything about this. And the doctor later said, oh, well, you know, it seemed this was the first time he had ever heard about the transplant. And he started trying to calm him down, saying, no, like, don't worry, we're not going to do anything you don't want to do. After that first interview, Daniel speaks with Obina, asks,

you know, how did it go? And Daniel, I assume, says, what are you talking? Why am I here? What, you know, I never. And what does Obina say to him? Yes, Abina says, well, listen, we actually brought you here for this kidney transplant. And if you go through with it, I'll pay you this nominal amount of money, you know? But just do it and you'll get paid.

But now Daniel has said to the hospital during that first interview, I don't know what I'm here. This is the first I'm hearing of this. So the hospital is aware maybe that something's going on. A few weeks later, the hospital kind of makes a deciding factor and says, no, this is, there's something fishy, this is coercion. We're not going to let this transplant happen. But Daniel is still in the UK living with Obina. Exactly.

You know, because after that first interview, I don't know if it was delusion or what, but The Akaramadus and Obina still thought maybe they could salvage this. So they were keeping Daniel around because there was actually a second interview. But, you know, as I learned, even before that second interview, the first doctor had told his colleague, this is just a formality. This isn't going to happen. You know, he just, you know, he seems like he's being coerced. So once the Royal Free Hospital says this is not happening. Daniel's still at Obina's house, and someone comes to examine him there and says,

you're still going to have a transplant, but we'll go back to Nigeria. If we can't get it done here, we'll just get it done in Nigeria. Yes. So right after they received the decision that the transplant won't be happening at the Royal Free Hospital in London, Obina has a doctor friend and someone else come over and examine Daniel. I think they're trying to figure out is there something physically wrong because they weren't, I'm not sure if they were really told why the transplant is not happening. So they wanted to examine him to see if he was still fit to be considered elsewhere as a donor.

So as they were doing that, you know, Daniel later said I was shocked. I thought this was over. Now they're still trying to see if I could be suitable, and they're talking about doing it in Nigeria, where some transplants do happen. And then after that examination, Obina says Daniel, here's a return ticket. You're going to go back to Nigeria on this date,

and we'll see what happens there. And, you know, Daniel's frightened. He's thinking I can't go back. And I'm sure he's thinking that for various reasons. you know, I can't go through with a transplant. And also, he had sold all of his business, you know, in Legos. He had left his life there. And so he was, you know, feeling confused and upset over these two things.

So they, he goes to the airport to get on the flight back. And what happens? He goes back with a family friend. of Abenas who escorts him to the airport. And when there, he realizes he can't go. So he flees. He leaves the airport. He only has, you know, less than 30 pounds in cash, his phone, some AirPods. He walks for a couple of days. He's sleeping outside. He runs into a friendly stranger on the street who lets him come into his flat and take a hot shower and have some food. And then he eventually ends up at the police station.

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There are no subscriptions, no long-term commitments. You just pay per session. See if you could pay as little as zero for therapy in seconds at growth therapy.com slash criminal. That's growtherapy.com slash criminal. Growtherapy.com slash criminal. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. Hi, I'm Bella Freud. Each week on fashion neurosis, I invite guests from the world of fashion, art, film, music, sport, and literature to lie on my couch and explore the connection between identity and fashion. This week on fashion neurosis, I welcome Shania Twain.

I didn't really want to flaunt it. I just wanted to be myself and be natural. Like, you know, this is my body. And so why shouldn't I wear things that flatter it and that I enjoy wearing that make me enjoy my body instead of not wanting my body. I resisted it until I started making videos. And then, man, I feel like a woman,

was that was, oh, now I'm like, oh, you know, this is way too much fun. Like, this was blowing my mind. Find fashion neurosis on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. When Daniel goes to the police in London, what does he tell them? He tells them a story. He says that he tells them he's only 15, which he did look 15. He tells them that, you know, he's homeless. that he had been brought to the UK by someone who's abandoned him.

He basically tells him this fictional story because he was afraid of being sent back to Nigeria. And so he wanted to paint himself as this vulnerable kid who needed help, which in a sense he was. You know, they later get the real story out of him, but they then place him in protective custody because his life really was a threat from the people who have, brought him to the UK and from the Akira Madus, who have a lot of power and influence.

In the meantime, the Akaramadus have given up on Daniel for now, or this is probably not going to happen. And they are starting to make new plans, and the new plan is we'll find a kidney in Turkey. At this point, the Karamadus are desperate because this was supposed to be a sure thing. I mean, just the year prior, Obina had gotten his transplant at the same hospital. with someone who was not related to him. And so they were not expecting this to happen at all. And so, yes, they're reaching out to contacts. Where else can we go?

They're talking to doctors in Turkey, which is actually a very popular spot for organ transplants. And they're also searching for new donors. And so at one point, E.K. sends photos of young men to the family group chat, of which Sony is a member, and says, here are some new potential donors. And Sonia responds and says, oh, I think the light-skinned one looks better than the dark-skinned one. He looks like he won't run away.

And, you know, they all laugh about it. And, you know, EK is reassuring Sonia, oh, don't worry, you know, we had. sort of one misstep, but we'll get this done. And, you know, I mean, obviously, I think a lot of people can empathize with the fact that they were worried about their daughter. They wanted to save her life. But there is just such a callousness to the way they were speaking about sort of targeting young, poor, vulnerable men for their organs. And then they're arrested. Tell me about where that happened.

So E.K. and his wife, Beatrice, were traveling. from Turkey to London. They started in Nigeria, stopped off in Turkey. I can imagine to sort of talk about transplant potentials. And then as soon as they landed a heathrow, they were arrested. They had more than 30,000 pounds in cash on them. And they were both taken into custody. That same day, their daughter was arrested at their UK home.

What were they charged with? They were charged with conspiracy to, I'm paraphrasing, but conspiracy to commit organ trafficking. And so was Zabina, who was arrested about a month later, at his home in the U.K. How big of a deal was this story in Nigeria? I mean, the Karamaru name, EK's a big politician. Was this all over? This was all over, because this was unbearable. almost unprecedented.

A Nigerian politician of his stature, of his reputation being arrested, it just doesn't happen in Nigeria or abroad. It was on the TV news. It was headlines of newspapers. It was covered social media. It was constantly trending on every WhatsApp conversation across the diaspora. I actually found out about the story because my parents had been discussing it on. on their WhatsApp chats with friends in Nigeria.

And they were like, Alexis, have you heard about the senator who was arrested for organ trafficking? And I had it. And, you know, it was shocking. Because, you know, it is still, it was the first time that anyone had been arrested in the UK for organ trafficking. It still is the only time. And it was a huge deal. All four go on trial in London in 2023, and all pleaded not guilty. What happened at the trial?

The trial was very revealing on a lot of different fronts. With E.K. and Beatrice, it was revealing because despite face with all the evidence, they still saw themselves as the victims. You know, they were, they kept saying this is not who we are, and they kept saying that they felt they had been trained. by Daniel because he had just wanted to use them to come to the UK, you know, completely ignoring sort of like his own story of not knowing what was happening and the exploitation that he was facing. And then it was also revealing to see that, you know, just learn more about what Obina Betta had done before he even got connected with EK.

The fact that year prior to the attempted transplant with Daniel, he had gotten a young man from the same market, gotten him to the UK, pretended that he was a relative, successfully tricked a UK hospital into performing this procedure, and then had stayed on in the UK, you know, to sort of, you know, as undocumented immigrant with his family, overstayed his medical visa and was just sort of working off the books. You know, it was remarkable because for all the fact that the hospital had stopped

this transplant of Daniel, the year prior, it had gone through. And it kind of just illustrated, this is a huge issue that is really often not caught. What evidence did prosecutors present against the Ikaramadus? So they had quite a bit. Beyond Daniel's testimony, they also had all electronic communications. So they had tons of WhatsApp messages from E.K. to Dewey, his brother, from Dewey to Abina, who was the middleman. And, you know, just talking about fees, talking about bribing the Nigerian Medical Secretary at the hospital so that she would help them, talking about. Talking about. you know, compelling Daniel to do various things. Basically, their whole operation was laid out in WhatsApp. And Obina did admit to a lot of it as well, even though E.K. and Beatrice, you know, were sort of denying it.

And Sonia, you know, Sonia was later found non-guilty, but she did admit to, you know, it was very hard for them to deny what was in that. these messages. And it was very hard for them to deny, you know, the testimony of the doctors at the British Hospital who said, you know, this is what we were told. These ended up being lies. And, you know, that was the, those were the facts. E.K. Beatrice and Obina are convicted. Sonia is not. What were their sentences?

So, E.K. was convicted to almost 10 years. Beatrice to a little bit less than half that. And Obino Beto to about 10 years as well. And actually, Beatrice has just completed as the beginning of this year, the custodial part of her sentence. And she was released back to Nigeria. And E.K.'s lawyers tried to to get him extradited or tried to get him released back to Nigeria to serve the rest of a sentence there. This was at the end of last year. And the UK denied it because, you know, they just, according to sources, they knew he would be released as soon as he was sent back there. And what happened to Daniel, the man who had been lured over? So Daniel, Daniel's an interesting story. So Daniel is still under protective court order in the UK, which is quite serious because he cannot be named.

His identity is kept anonymous. And technically, I and, you know, other journalists and other people are not allowed to try to reach him, which is, you know, it's very serious. But I wanted to still find out who he was. And so I went to Nigeria and I talked to his friends and family. And they had heard, one of his best friends had heard from him a little bit while this saga was happening. But then as soon as the police put him into custody, they didn't hear from him for over two years, I want to say. And then last year, his father became sick in his village. And he called his family and friends there.

they let him know what's happening. He gave a little bit of update on his life. He said he was doing okay, that he was finally in school, which is what he had always wanted. He was studying. He was doing well. He was sad about his father and wanted to help, but he said it wasn't safe for him to come back. And so towards later last year, his father died. His family and friends talked to him again and let him know the news.

and Daniel was really upset, but he told them that, you know, he was doing okay. He was studying and he was happy to be able to do that. Sonia Karamadu spoke with the BBC. What did she say about what happened? You know, it was an interesting interview because she had a lot of emotion, obviously, for her parents. She said she felt guilty that they had to go to these extreme lengths. to find a donor for her and that they were now in prison because of it. She also said that she didn't really feel much about Daniel in general.

She was sort of vaguely sorry for him, but she didn't really think about, you know, sort of think about him or have regard for him. And I think that kind of sort of illustrated the sort of whole problem with this, which was that, her whole family was so focused on trying to help her, but they didn't really care about anyone else. They didn't care about the vulnerable people they wanted to exploit. I mean, even during E.K.'s trial, he was implying that Daniel, you know,

even though he was a market trader, he can make a lot of money with that, which is simply not true. You know, he made such a small pintence of money. And so, yeah, again, there was just a feeling of sort of callousness. Has she gotten a kidney transplant? As far as I can tell, I don't believe she has. You mentioned this earlier that this is not a story in a vacuum, that this happens all the time organ trafficking. How common is it?

Well, based on estimates, I mean, it's believed to be happening in overfinding. 50 countries at least, and that at least 10%, but probably more of transplants are taking place, you know, through tourism, through people, A, getting transplants elsewhere, but then also potentially paying people. You know, one thing that wasn't in the story that I was looking into was that in Nigeria, there is a thriving black market for organs, for kidneys, especially, where sort of desperate people are not necessarily, you know, being tricked into it, but are selling their kidneys. And Nigeria has sort of attempted to charge some people, doctors, hospital, administrators with allowing these transplants to take place, but the trials never really go anywhere.

And so it's really rampant. And then, you know, obviously in the UK as well, this is still the only organ trafficking case when we know that so many more transplants must be taking place there in a similar vein. And so, you know, I think a lot of us to do with the fact that the people who are getting these transplants have the money, have the influence and the power. not to be prosecuted for it. You can read Alexis's full piece about this story for The Guardian

at the link in our show notes. Alexis, thank you very much. Thank you. That's journalist Alexis O'Kewo. All of these conversations that we release on Tuesdays are also available to watch on our YouTube channel

at YouTube.com slash criminal podcast. While you're there, you can also check out the back catalog of our regular criminal episodes. Find clips of me and criminal co-creator Lauren Spore making our other show,

please continue, and more. The link is in our show notes. I'm Phoebe Judge. Thanks for listening.