Olayiwola Matthew
The United Kingdom has turned down the federal government’s request for former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu to be transferred to Nigeria to serve the remainder of his prison sentence.
Ekweremadu is currently imprisoned in the UK after being convicted of organ trafficking. In March 2023, he was handed a nine-year, eight-month sentence for conspiring to exploit a young man’s kidney.
Earlier in November, President Bola Tinubu dispatched a high-level delegation to London to discuss Ekweremadu’s case and explore the possibility of a prisoner transfer. The delegation included Yusuf Tuggar, minister of foreign affairs, and Lateef Fagbemi, attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice.
However, The UK Guardian, quoting an unnamed official from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), reported that the request was rejected.
“A source at the MoJ has confirmed the request was rejected. It is understood the UK government was concerned that Nigeria could offer no guarantees that Ekweremadu would continue his prison sentence after being deported,” the paper reported.
The official added: “Any prisoner transfer is at our discretion following a careful assessment of whether it would be in the interests of justice. The UK will not tolerate modern slavery and any offender will face the full force of UK law.”
Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice, and their associate, medical doctor Obinna Obeta, were arrested by London’s Metropolitan Police in June 2022. Authorities said a 21-year-old man had been falsely presented as a cousin of their daughter, Sonia, at the Royal Free Hospital in London, in an attempt to secure an £80,000 kidney transplant.n
The young man, who said he was promised work upon arrival in the UK, reported the incident to the police in May 2022.
In March 2023, a UK court found the trio guilty of organ trafficking—making it the first conviction under the UK’s Modern Slavery Act for such an offence.
On May 5, 2023, Ekweremadu was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison. His wife received a four-year, six-month sentence, while Obeta was jailed for 10 years. The trial judge, Jeremy Johnson, ordered that Beatrice serve half her sentence in custody and the remainder on licence.
She was subsequently released in January and has since returned to Nigeria.