The United Kingdom has declined a formal request from the Nigerian government to have former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu transferred to Nigeria to complete his prison sentence. The decision, reported by The Guardian, underscores the UK’s unwillingness to repatriate Ekweremadu amid concerns about enforcing the remaining term.
Ekweremadu is currently serving a sentence of nine years and eight months in a UK prison after being convicted in 2023 for his role in an organ-trafficking plot. He and his co-conspirators were found guilty of exploiting a young Nigerian man for his kidney in what was described as a conspiracy to have the organ transplanted to Ekweremadu’s daughter.
President Bola Tinubu had sent a delegation to London earlier this month, led by Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar and Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi, to negotiate the transfer under international prisoner-transfer mechanisms.
According to sources cited by the UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the request was assessed but ultimately rejected because British officials were not convinced that Nigeria could guarantee Ekweremadu would continue serving the full term upon his return.
A UK MoJ insider was quoted as saying that “any prisoner transfer is at our discretion following a careful assessment of whether it would be in the interests of justice.” The same source added strongly that “the UK will not tolerate modern slavery and any offender will face the full force of UK law.”
Ekweremadu’s case first grabbed headlines in 2022 when he, his wife Beatrice, and Dr. Obinna Obeta were arrested in London. The court heard that they had lured a 21-year-old man to the UK under false premises in pursuit of a kidney transplant.
In March 2023, they were convicted under the UK’s Modern Slavery Act — a landmark verdict that marked the first time a public official had been sentenced for organ trafficking in Britain.
With the UK’s rejection, Ekweremadu will remain in a British facility until his sentence is completed. His wife, Beatrice, who initially received a sentence of four years and six months, has already been released and returned to Nigeria.
