The Benue State Police Command has arraigned a 20-year-old man named Aondoaseer Agbadu in the Magistrate Court on charges related to conspiracy for organ harvesting. The case involves the alleged deception of a 17-year-old named Terungwa Swati, who was taken to Abuja where one of his kidneys was reportedly harvested without his consent or that of his parents.
Other individuals involved in the alleged conspiracy are said to have fled when the victim’s father reported the case to the Aliade police station in the Gwer East Local Government Area of the state.
During the court proceedings in Makurdi, the state capital, the police prosecutor, Inspector Godwin Ato, explained that Alexander Swati reported the case on August 27. The case was subsequently transferred from the Divisional Police Headquarters, Aliade, to the State Criminal Investigation Department in Makurdi.
The prosecutor detailed that in April 2023, Aondoaseer Agbadu and others, who are currently at large, allegedly conspired to deceive and transport 17-year-old Terungwa Swati to Abuja. It is claimed that while in Abuja, they performed surgery on Terungwa, harvesting one of his kidneys and selling it to another person without the consent of his father or the victim himself.
Inspector Ato stated that Agbadu was arrested during the police investigation, but others involved in the alleged crime remain fugitive.
The charges against the accused are based on Sections 27 and 20 (1), (2), and (3) of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015.
No plea was taken due to jurisdictional reasons. The Magistrate, Mr. Taribo Atta, ordered that the accused be remanded at the Federal Maximum Correctional Centre in Makurdi and scheduled the case for further mention on October 23.