Prosecutors told an Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court in the UK on Thursday in the case of alleged conspiracy to harvest a minor’s organs brought against former Nigerian Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu that they found £20,000 on him at the point of his arrest.
Ekweremadu, 60, and accountant wife Beatrice, 55, were arrested on Tuesday at the Heathrow Airport in London en route to Istanbul in Turkey.
The court heard that the couple was headed to Turkey where the procedure could take place.
It was not immediately clear if Ekweremadu declared the amount he was carrying before his arrest. It is illegal to carry more than £10,000 without official declaration.
The court also heard the couple, who have four children and a house in Willesden, North London, hoped to transplant the boy’s organs to their daughter Sonia who suffers from kidney failure.
Police were alerted to potential offences under modern slavery laws last month.
Officials say the child, identified in a letter written by Ekweremadu to the British High Commission in Nigeria as David Ukpo, is now under the care of safeguarding authorities and the Metropolitan Police.
Ekweremadu has been in the UK for at least the past fortnight having met with members of the Nigerian community in Britain in Lincoln recently.
