The United Kingdom government has turned down Nigeria’s request to have former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu serve the remainder of his prison sentence in Nigeria.
Ekweremadu is currently incarcerated in the UK after being convicted in March 2023 of organ trafficking. He was sentenced to nine years and eight months for conspiring to exploit a young man’s kidney.
In early November, President Bola Tinubu sent a high-level delegation to London to engage UK authorities on Ekweremadu’s case. The delegation included Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar and Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi.
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According to a report by The Guardian, an unnamed official at the UK Ministry of Justice confirmed that the transfer request was rejected. The official said the UK was concerned that Nigeria could not guarantee the continuation of Ekweremadu’s sentence after transfer. “Any prisoner transfer is at our discretion following a careful assessment of whether it would be in the interests of justice,” the official stated. “The UK will not tolerate modern slavery, and any offender will face the full force of UK law.”
Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, were arrested by the London Metropolitan Police in June 2022 after attempting to arrange an £80,000 kidney transplant for a 21-year-old man, who was falsely presented as a relative of their daughter, Sonia. The man, who was allegedly promised work in the UK, reported the scheme to the police in May 2022.
In March 2023, a UK court found Ekweremadu, his wife, and doctor Obinna Obeta guilty of organ trafficking, marking the first verdict of its kind under the UK Modern Slavery Act. Ekweremadu received a nine-year, eight-month sentence; Beatrice was sentenced to four years and six months, and Obeta received ten years.
Judge Jeremy Johnson ruled that Beatrice serve half of her sentence in custody, with the remainder on licence. She was released in January and returned to Nigeria.
