The police in Lagos have started looking into a case of organ harvesting and sale without parental consent involving two teenage girls living in the Iyana-Ipaja neighborhood of the state.
The girls, Precious Ikechukwu, 17- a Pentecostal Bishop's daughter in Lagos, and Favour Obam, the Bishop's secretary, are accused of conspiring with Mrs. Adeleke Blessing, an adult member of the Church, to visit a doctor at Redwood Specialist Hospital, Abeokuta, where their organs were sold for N100,000 each two months ago.
Image:Vanguard
The discovery
The matter became known on September 12, 2022, when Precious, the daughter of the bishop started vomiting and was taken to a hospital by her father, Ikechukwu Umeayo, who suspected she had typhoid or malaria.
The doctor at the hospital insisted on a medical exam, which later revealed that Precious' anus and private parts were damaged.
Precious reportedly fell unconscious after her illness was made public. When she later regained consciousness, she told her father that Mrs. Adeleke Blessing, a female member of his church, had taken her and Favour to Ogun State, where their organs were sold to a doctor.
The teenagers claimed that Mrs.Adeleke persuaded them to sell their organs, because the bishop does not pay them sufficiently and also warned them not to let their parents know about it, otherwise she would kill them.
The conspiracy
The teenagers further revealed that
when Mrs. Adeleke Blessing, also known as Mummy K, brought them to Redwood Hospital Abeokuta, the doctor there, known only as Dr. Durodola gave them drug injections after which they were compelled to go to a PDF hospital in Surulere, Lagos, where the medical doctor illegally took their ovaries, eggs, and organs without their consent, leaving them with excruciating pain and bleeding.
Organ harvest
According to information obtained by Vanguard, following the shocking revelations, the teenagers were transferred to a different hospital in Surulere, Lagos for further medical examination and scan, which revealed that their liver, uterus, urinary bladder, kidney, spleen, and gall bladder had been damaged as a result of the 46 ovaries and eggs that had been removed from them at the hospital in Abeokuta.
When Vanguard contacted Bishop Umeayo, the father of one of the teens, he said that when his daughter, Precious was taken to the hospital and the test was done, her younger siblings told him that they knew their sister was sick as she frequently visited the toilet with medical equipment and came out dripping blood.
The Bishop said that Mrs. Adeleke, the main suspect, was staying with her mother-in-law in the compound where the church is located and frequently attended the church vigil. He said the other teenager, Favour resides with him and works as his secretary for a monthly salary of N20,000, while his daughter Precious is a hairstylist and often made Mrs. Adeleke's hair and got paid.
Bishop Ikechukwu reported the incident to the Iyana-Ipaja police station, which then forwarded it to the State Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Bureau, SCIID, Panti, Yaba, Lagos, for further investigations.
The girls volunteered—Adeleke
In her reaction, the alleged major suspect, Mrs. Adeleke, told Vanguard that ”the two girls volunteered to donate their eggs to the hospital, after listening to my phone conversation with a doctor and, in return, they were compensated with N100,000, of which Favour gave me N20,000 for introducing them to the hospital.”
Foul play
However, after the aggrieved bishop's lawyer, Ikechukwu Chiaha, learned that the investigators were asking for an amicable settlement and payment of N300,000, of which he claimed the police would keep N200,000, he suspected that the police may have compromised over the case and reported the development to
the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons,NAPTIP, which has started fresh investigations into the matter.
On Vanguard's inquiry with NAPTIP, an official of NAPTIP who pleaded not to be quoted said; “I am not aware of the case. I will ask our people.”
When contacted, Lagos State Police spokesman, David Hundeyin, said; “It was not organ harvesters, the operation was carried out by a professional doctor and the process was legal. All documents were signed and the girls stated in the document that they were above 18 years.
"The doctor told them about the consequences of feeling pain for two days, and they accepted and donated their organs. Unfortunately, they did not inform their father about it and the father is requesting N200 million as compensation,” PPRO Hundeyin said.
Crime
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