UK Declines Nigeria’s Bid to Have Ekweremadu Serve Remaining Sentence at Home

The UK has turned down Nigeria’s request for Ike Ekweremadu to complete his prison sentence at home, despite a diplomatic push earlier this month.

Ekweremadu, a former deputy senate president, is serving a nine-year, eight-month sentence in Britain after being convicted in March 2023 for conspiring to traffic a young man for the purpose of harvesting his kidney.

President Bola Tinubu had dispatched a delegation led by Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar and Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi to London to appeal for his transfer under existing international prisoner-exchange frameworks. Their mission followed renewed efforts by Abuja to secure a deal that would allow Ekweremadu to serve the remainder of his term in Nigeria.

According to the UK Guardian, an official from the Ministry of Justice confirmed that the request was rejected over concerns that Nigeria could not provide firm assurances that the sentence would be fully enforced once Ekweremadu returned. The official noted that any transfer decision rests on a detailed assessment of whether it aligns with the interests of justice, adding that the UK remains committed to enforcing strong penalties for crimes linked to modern slavery.

Ekweremadu’s conviction stemmed from events in 2022, when he, his wife Beatrice, and medical practitioner Obinna Obeta were arrested after a 21-year-old man reported to police that he had been brought to London under false pretences for an £80,000 organ-transplant arrangement involving the couple’s daughter. A UK court later found all three guilty, marking the first conviction of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act.

Ekweremadu received the longest sentence, while Beatrice was handed four years and six months and Obeta ten years. Beatrice has since completed the custodial portion of her term and returned to Nigeria earlier this year.