*Abuja hospital says documents came from a lawyer and appeared authentic
*False Affidavits used to rewrite identities for alleged organ harvesting
Sworn affidavits deposed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, were allegedly used to rewrite the identities of young men recruited into an organ harvesting network operating between the Federal Capital Territory and Nasarawa State, according to victims’ accounts and police investigators.
The allegation places the legal profession at the centre of a criminal investigation that has so far produced arrests, the identification of two medical doctors as alleged syndicate figures, and questions about how court-issued documents came to serve as the paperwork of an illegal trade.
The Affidavit As An Instrument
Police investigators say the syndicate followed a consistent pattern. Young men were recruited, persuaded to alter their identities, including their names, National Identification Numbers and other personal details, through sworn affidavits, and then taken for surgery.
One of the alleged victims, 22-year-old Samuel Ezekiel, said the process began with a trip to court.
“They took us to the Federal High Court, where they did the affidavit. From there we went to the hospital,” he said. “We signed at the hospital in the night. After we signed, they came and gave us money in dollars.”
Ezekiel said he was introduced to the arrangement by a friend and alleged agent of the syndicate, Emmanuel Odi, and was promised about ₦1.7 million for a kidney.
He said the money was handed to Odi to hold while he went into the theatre. “When I came out of the theatre, Emmanuel had already changed the money. He bought two phones, two power banks and two Wi-Fi devices. He gave me one of each.”
After roughly a week in hospital, he said he was moved to a hotel for two days and then to Cross River State, where he remained for about three months. “When I asked him where the money was, he told me the money had finished. Then he said we did not have transport to come back. He collected my phone and sold it. That is how I got transport and came back to Abuja.”
Asked why he was moved out of Abuja, he said the instruction came from the agent at the hospital: “So that we won’t expose ourselves. That is the language he used.”
On what drew him in, he said: “They tell you initially that it is to save a life. Then when you no longer agree, they add some money so that you can help yourself.”
A Second Account
The Nyanya–Mararaba corridor, a major link between Abuja and its neighbouring communities, is described by investigators as a hotspot for the alleged network, which is said to target teenagers, adolescents and young adults.
Another alleged victim, Zulkifilu Abdulkadiri, a carpenter, said he was lured about two years ago by a relative with a promise of assistance.
“He told me to go and get something in Abuja. I came to my aunt’s family house and waited for a call. When the call came, I was instructed to meet some people in Mararaba. I went there, and while lying on the bed, I was injected,” he said. “After that I was barely conscious. I was without my full senses for about two days.”
He said he was given ₦50,000 initially and about ₦2 million later, and woke to discover that one of his kidneys had been removed. He claims several young people in communities along the Karu–Keffi corridor have undergone similar procedures, and alleges that some private hospitals in Abuja were used.
Asked what pushed him into it, he said: “It is because of condition. I have a family. I don’t know how to feed my family.”
The mother of one of the young men said the family learnt of the surgery only afterwards. “My son asked me, ‘Mummy, if somebody has one kidney, can he still give birth?’ I told him I knew a safety officer living close to us with one kidney who is a family man,” she said. “Later I heard from friends that this was what had happened. It broke my heart as a mother, because we did not know about it. That is not what we wished for our son.”
Police have identified Dr Benjamin Oime, described as a consultant nephrologist, as the alleged leader of one of the syndicates. Another suspect, Dr Dania Otokpa, is alleged to be connected to Wellington Hospital, Abuja, which police describe as an outsourcing facility for some of the operations.
Emmanuel Odi is named by Ezekiel as the agent who recruited him. Abdulkadiri names a relative, said to be from Bauchi State, as the person who lured him to Mararaba.
Investigators also disclosed that a man treated as a victim in 2022 is now being treated as a suspect, allegedly having moved from donor to recruiter.
The Hospital’s Position
A representative of the hospital said its involvement was limited to providing facilities and that the paperwork presented to it appeared regular on its face.
“The consent and the affidavit state that the procedure is voluntary and that there is no monetary gain involved,” the representative said. “We have a legal team that goes through all those processes. The person must be of age. Once the person is of age and comes with a relative who also consents, then we can go ahead.”
He added: “We don’t do anything illegal. It was in the course of these investigations that we discovered that the names they gave were fictitious. We never knew those names were fictitious.”
Explaining how the documents were cleared, he said the hospital’s ethical committee vetted the papers submitted by the visiting consultant’s team. “Since the documents were coming from a doctor and a lawyer, we thought it was authentic.”
He said the arrangement with the consultant rested on a memorandum of understanding, describing it as a visiting consultancy, and that the hospital had handled five cases this year, with complications recorded in one.
The Police Position
The Commander of the Special Tactical Squad, ACP Victor Ogwede, described the practice as an inhuman form of human trafficking, saying the syndicates target the poor and vulnerable.
“In human trafficking, payment for an organ is the major crime,” he said, adding that recruiters leverage the poverty and status of their targets.
Beyond the affidavits, police say the suspects relied on a wider body of falsified documentation, including forged consent letters, forged birth certificates and cloned National Identification Numbers, assembled to present a commercial transaction as a voluntary and altruistic donation.
The squad says the operation is far from over and that it is widening its dragnet to identify other syndicates.
The Lawyer Has Not Been Named
The Nigeria Police Force has not officially released the name of the lawyer or lawyers who prepared the documentation. A lawyer familiar with the matter has, however, publicly alleged that the syndicate used affidavits to change a victim’s name in an attempt to rewrite his identity, obscure the paper trail and conceal the circumstances of the operation from oversight bodies.
Advocates have argued more broadly that such networks depend on a supporting cast of compliant legal practitioners, commissioners for oaths and hospital administrative staff who process paperwork that allows the parties to sidestep the statutory prohibition on commercial dealings in human organs.
Several statutes are engaged on the facts alleged.
Part VI of the National Health Act 2014 governs the removal of tissue and organs from living persons, requires informed consent, and prohibits commercial dealings in human organs, with penal consequences for contravention.
The Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act 2015 criminalises the recruitment, transportation and transfer of persons for the purpose of organ removal, and is the framework under which the police have characterised the conduct.
The Oaths Act and the Penal Code Act applicable in the Federal Capital Territory address false swearing. An affidavit deposed to knowingly false facts exposes both the deponent and any person who procures the false oath to prosecution, and a deponent’s account that he was directed to a court registry to swear to a changed name and NIN raises the question of who procured that oath.
For the profession, the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners prohibit a lawyer from counselling or assisting a client in conduct the lawyer knows to be illegal or fraudulent. A practitioner shown to have drafted affidavits or consent instruments knowing their purpose would face proceedings before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee independently of any criminal trial.
The significant feature of this case for the Bar is not that documents were forged, but that some of them were, on the victims’ account, genuine in form. An affidavit deposed at a court registry carries the appearance of judicial regularity while the registry itself verifies nothing beyond the identity and oath of the deponent. The truth of the deposition is the deponent’s burden alone.
That gap is what the alleged syndicate is said to have exploited. A change-of-name affidavit is an ordinary, inexpensive and largely unpoliced instrument, and once sworn it travels well: it supports a fresh NIN record, satisfies a hospital ethics committee and survives a light audit. The hospital’s own defence in this matter, that it acted on documents because they came from a doctor and a lawyer, illustrates the point precisely. The signature of a legal practitioner was treated as the assurance that no further inquiry was needed.
Two questions therefore follow the investigation. The first is whether the police will pursue the drafting lawyers with the same vigour as the medical suspects, since the offence of procuring a false affidavit is complete on the facts alleged and does not depend on proving the surgery. The second is whether the NBA and the LPDC will treat the matter as a professional discipline issue in its own right rather than waiting on the outcome of a criminal trial.
Until the identity of the practitioner or practitioners involved is established and tested, the case stands as a warning about how easily the machinery of the courts can be turned into cover for what it is designed to expose.
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