A young Nigerian, Samuel Ezekiel, has recounted how his friend allegedly changed his identity to “Hassan Abubakar” before he underwent kidney removal at Wellington Hospital, Life Camp, Abuja.
Ezekiel also alleged that after he was paid in dollars for the procedure, he handed the money to his friend, Emmanuel Odeh, who allegedly changed the cash and spent part of it on phones, power banks and Wi-Fi devices.
He disclosed this while speaking to journalists during the Nigeria Police Force parade of suspects linked to an alleged organ-harvesting syndicate in Abuja and Nasarawa State on Friday.
Ezekiel said Odeh initially told him they were going to the hospital, adding that he trusted his friend enough to comply with his instructions.
“It’s my friend that deceived me. His name is Emmanuel Udeh,” Ezekiel said.
He added, “He deceived me that we are going to the hospital because I don’t know what—because of anything he told me, I will just, uh, do what he asked me to do.”
According to him, Odeh later linked him with another man, David, who took him to an agent identified as Ben for medical tests.
He said after his initial test results did not match those of the intended kidney recipient, the agent later informed them that another recipient had been found.
Ezekiel said the agent later told them that his kidney matched another person’s, after which he was taken to Ben’s place.
He said, “Then he now said that they are going to change my name, that I will be bearing Hassan Abubakar.”
Ezekiel said they were subsequently taken to the Federal High Court, where an affidavit was prepared before they proceeded to Wellington Hospital.
“Then from there, they now took us to the Federal High Court, where they did the affidavit. Then from there, we now went to the hospital, Wellington Clinic,” he said.
He said they signed documents at the hospital before he was taken into the theater.
According to Ezekiel, the money was brought to them at about 10pm or 11pm before he entered the theatre.
