The lawyer to social media influencer VeryDarkMan, Marshall Abubakar, has alleged that vulnerable young Nigerians are being lured into illegal kidney harvesting schemes by medical practitioners and their agents under the guise of medical procedures.
According to Abubakar, more than 10 young Nigerians may have fallen victim to an alleged illegal kidney harvesting network involving medical practitioners and their agents.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Friday, Abubakar said the case came to light after a young man approached the Martin Luther King Centre, headed by VeryDarkMan, with a medical report indicating that his left kidney was missing.
He said the centre independently verified the report at two hospitals in Abuja, including a government medical facility in Jabi, where the absence of the young man’s left kidney was reportedly confirmed.
He said the young man was allegedly given about $1,300 after the procedure, while his identity was changed and an affidavit obtained in another name in an attempt to conceal the circumstances surrounding the operation. Abubakar further alleged that other youths had been similarly targeted around Masaka, Nyanya and Mararaba, with some allegedly recruited through agents.
He claimed that kidneys harvested from some victims were subsequently sold for between ₦50 million and ₦70 million, while the donors received only a fraction of the proceeds.
Abubakar described the alleged practice as a criminal enterprise, stressing that lawful organ donation requires informed consent and must not involve financial inducement. He also alleged that the families of the affected youths were not informed before the procedures and only became aware after the cases emerged.