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

Criminal

This episode of Criminal explores a shocking case of organ trafficking involving a Nigerian politician and his family's desperate attempt to secure a kidney transplant for their

Key takeaways

• The Nigerian political elite often exploit their influence to circumvent legal medical systems, even resorting to human trafficking for organ transplants.
• Organ trafficking is widespread globally, with Nigeria having a thriving black market for kidneys despite weak enforcement of anti-trafficking laws.

Main topics

• Organ trafficking
• Kidney transplant system in the UK and Nigeria

Notable quotes

"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."

Conclusion

This episode reveals the dark underbelly of medical tourism and organ trafficking, exposing how privilege and desperation can

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) Hi, it's Phoebe. This fall, I'm going on the road with a big experiment. It's a brand new live show all about me and my family and secrets. It's totally different from anything we've done before. We're going to announce the full run of Tour Date soon, but first, we've got a couple of special shows coming up in just a few weeks. I'll be in Durham on September 16th. at the first place we ever did a live show, Loderco, and in Portland, Maine, on September 18th. We've never done a show in Maine. You can find out more at thisiscriminal.com slash live. I hope to see you very soon. Speaker 5 (0:43) I'm Ina Garten. On my new podcast, Happy Hour with Ina, I'm inviting really interesting guests to join me for a drink and a fun conversation at my kitchen table in New York City. I'll be getting personal with chefs, actors, comedians, musicians, and writers I admire. So grab a snack, pull up a chair, and join us. Subscribe to Happy Hour with Ina on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes will be available every Wednesday starting September 16th. Speaker 2 (1:16) 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. Speaker 3 (1:38) I'm Phoebe Judge, and today I'm talking with journalist Alexis Okeowo. She recently wrote a piece for The Guardian titled The Body Snatchers about organ trafficking and a 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? Speaker 2 (2:07) Yeah, the Karamadus are and have been a well-known, well-regarded family in Nigeria. The father, Ike, is a famous, was a famous politician. He was a long-running senator. His family was also very wealthy. Like many Nigerian politicians, he had homes in Nigeria, the UK, the UAE, and his children grew up in that lifestyle. They went to boarding schools in the UK and lived a very nice life. And Speaker 3 (2:42) his daughter, Sonia, as you say, had spent a large portion of her life in the UK going to boarding schools. Speaker 3 (2:51) When did the family learn that Sonia was sick? Speaker 2 (2:54) 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. Speaker 2 (3:20) certain amount of valuations they were told that she would either have to start dialysis Speaker 2 (3:27) or to 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. Speaker 3 (3:40) 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? Speaker 2 (3:52) 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 Speaker 3 (4:39) long did Sonia anticipate that she would be waiting for a new kidney in the UK? Speaker 2 (4:45) 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 Speaker 3 (5:09) than waiting on the list, Sonia's family decided to take a Speaker 2 (5:14) 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 UK. Who Speaker 3 (5:30) was this man that they reached out to? Speaker 2 (5:33) So the man they reached out to, so I'll say, so Ike, the senator, he... was very close with his brother named D-Way, who's a doctor, a Nigerian doctor. And D-Way had been involved in getting Sonia to the doctors in the UK, finding out her diagnosis. And so once they learned they needed a transplant, D-Way 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 D-Way reached out to him and said, how did you do that? Speaker 3 (6:23) Where did Obina get his kidney from? Speaker 2 (6:26) 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 UK, possibly pay him and introduce him to a new life. So they're connected Speaker 3 (6:59) with Obina. And what does he offer to do for them? Speaker 2 (7:05) 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 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 Lagos, 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, he 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 UK. Ben had sent Daniel and some of their 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