‎Lured With N2 Million: Inside The Nasarawa-Abuja Kidney Harvesting Case ‎

A recruiter for an organ-harvesting syndicate has been arrested and four intended kidney donors rescued after a operation that stretched from a motor park in Lafia, Nasarawa State, to a hotel room in Abuja, exposing in granular detail how the trade solicits, screens and moves its victims.

How The Suspect Was Caught
According to Nasarawa State's Commissioner of Police, Shettima Muhammad, the suspect, identified as 40-year-old Maro Ebojoh of Etiope East Local Government Area in Delta State, was apprehended at the Alhaji Yahaya Sabo Motor Park in Lafia after motor park officials themselves raised the alarm.

Police operatives of the "B" Division responded immediately and took custody of the suspect. Preliminary investigation showed Ebojoh had travelled to Lafia specifically to recruit organ donors for an urgent kidney transplant, luring his targets with a promised payment of N2 million each, roughly $1,486 at the official exchange rate.

The four identified victims, Umar Barau, 25, Suleiman Alhaji-Garba, 20, Williams Dadung, 32, and Stanley Ezekiel, 27, had been taken to a hospital for medical evaluation. One of them passed the screening and was moved to Abuja for the transplant procedure itself, only for it to be aborted at the last stage over concerns about the donor's blood pressure.

The Abuja Rescue
That aborted procedure is what allowed police to intervene before any organ was actually removed. "Operatives of the command swiftly moved to Abuja and rescued the victim unhurt from a hotel where he was being lodged," Muhammad told journalists, describing an operation that required coordination between the Nasarawa command and colleagues in the Federal Capital Territory to trace the victim to the specific hotel where he had been kept pending the surgery.

What The Suspect's Confession Revealed

Ebojoh's own confession to police laid out the trade's internal economics with unusual clarity. He admitted to having agreed to receive N6.5 million (about $4,829) from his client for procuring the donor, of which he had already collected N500,000 (about $371) upfront.

He further confessed to having procured a donor for a different client roughly two months earlier, for which he was paid N1 million (about $743), while the donor in that earlier case received N2.5 million (about $1,858).

The gap between what recruiters pocket and what they ultimately pay the person whose kidney is removed is the same pattern documented in similar Nigerian cases, and it is central to why brokers actively seek out young men facing financial hardship.

Police say investigations are ongoing to identify and arrest other members of the syndicate who remain at large, and Muhammad urged Lafia residents to stay alert, particularly against people posing as agents for organ donors. "Say something when you see something," he said.

Why This Case Matters
What distinguishes this case from many that surface in Nigerian organ-trafficking reporting is that it was interrupted mid-process, at the hospital screening and pre-operative stage in Abuja, rather than discovered after the fact through a victim's escape or a mortuary raid.

That gives investigators a rare opportunity to trace the transaction chain forward: which hospital conducted the screening, which medical staff were involved in scheduling the aborted procedure, and who the intended recipient's family or representatives were.

Whether that opportunity is used to prosecute the medical and financial layers of the syndicate, rather than only the field recruiter who was caught at the motor park, will determine whether this case becomes a genuine disruption of the network or simply another arrest that leaves the underlying market intact.

Mustapha Bature Sallama
Medical/Science communicator, Private Investigator, Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Analysis,United States Institute of Peace (USIP), [email protected] +233555275880

References
Peoples Gazette, "Police nab organ-harvesting suspect, rescue four victims in Nasarawa." https://gazettengr.com/police-nab-organ-harvesting-suspect-rescue-four-victims-in-nasarawa/

Vanguard News, "Dollar to Naira exchange rate today, August 24, 2026." https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/08/dollar-to-naira-exchange-rate-today-august-24-2026/ (Dollar figures

calculated at the CBN's official NFEM rate of ₦1,346.49/$1 as of August 21, 2026.)