THE Nigerian Senator Ike Ekweremadu was found guilty today by a London court of attempting to remove it last year kidney one young man for the transplant in daughter of.

In addition to the 60-year-old senator, the court found guilty his wife, Beatrice, 56, and a doctor who brokered the transplant, Obina Obeta, 50. They were all accused of conspiring to transport the young man from Lagos to London to harvest his kidney.

The couple’s daughter, 25-year-old Sonia, was acquitted.

Ekweremadu, who was also a former vice president of the Senate in Nigeria, as well as all his co-accused pleaded not guilty.

Their sentences will be announced on May 5. They face up to life in prison under the Modern Slavery Act. Under this law, they were charged with conspiracy to exploit a human being. The victim, who the family said was Sonia’s cousin, was actually a street vendor from Lagos. He had been promised £7,000 and that he would be able to stay and work in the UK.

In Britain it is legal to donate a kidney for altruistic reasons, but not if there is any financial or material reward.

In his testimony, the young man said that he thought he was going to work in Britain and only when he was facing the British doctors did he realize that they were going to take an organ from him. He then turned to the police “looking for someone to save his life”.

The operation never took place.

The senator, who belongs to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party and is elected in southeastern Nigeria, did not stand as a candidate in the recent elections in his country, as he was in custody in Britain.