The United Kingdom (UK) government has rejected a request from the Nigerian federal government to transfer former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu to Nigeria to complete his prison sentence.
Ekweremadu is serving a nine-year and eight-month sentence in the UK after he was convicted in 2023 of conspiring to traffic a young man for the purpose of harvesting his kidney.
His conviction followed a high-profile trial at the Old Bailey, which exposed the former lawmaker’s central role in an organised organ-trafficking scheme.
The UK government’s decision closes the door on any immediate hopes of repatriation, meaning Ekweremadu will remain in a British prison for the foreseeable future.
A Nigerian government delegation led by the foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, met officials at the UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ) last week to discuss the possibility of returning Ekweremadu to Nigeria under a prisoner-transfer arrangement.
The delegation argued he could serve the remainder of his term in a Nigerian correctional facility.
However, a source within the MoJ confirmed that the request had been declined.
It is understood that UK authorities were not satisfied that Nigeria could guarantee Ekweremadu would continue to serve his full sentence once transferred.
A government spokesperson, citing policy, said they could not comment on individual cases but said: “Any prisoner transfer is at our discretion following a careful assessment of whether it would be in the interests of justice.”
Another official added: “The UK will not tolerate modern slavery and any offender will face the full force of UK law.”
Ekweremadu’s wife, Beatrice, was sentenced to four years and six months with half served in custody and was released earlier this year before returning to Nigeria.
During sentencing, Justice Jeremy Johnson condemned the conspiracy as a “despicable trade,” warning that organ harvesting amounted to “a form of slavery” in which victims were treated as commodities.
He described Ekweremadu as the “driving force” behind the plot, adding that the case exposed weaknesses in the UK health system’s ability to detect organ trafficking.
The Old Bailey heard that in February 2022, the young man trafficked to London was taken to a private renal unit at the Royal Free hospital, where it was falsely claimed he was a cousin of the Ekweremadus’ daughter, Sonia, and had agreed to an £80,000 transplant.
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