The United Kingdom has rejected Nigeria’s request to have former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu returned home to serve the remainder of his prison sentence, according to a report by The Guardian UK.
Ekweremadu, 63, is serving nine years and eight months in a UK prison after his 2023 conviction for conspiring to exploit a young man for his kidney.
The scheme involved his wife, Beatrice, and medical collaborator Dr. Obinna Obeta, who trafficked the victim to London to harvest his kidney for Ekweremadu’s daughter, Sonia, at a private NHS hospital.
A Nigerian delegation led by Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar recently met officials at the UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to request Ekweremadu’s transfer.
However, a source within the MoJ confirmed the bid was declined, citing concerns that Nigeria could not guarantee he would continue serving his sentence if repatriated.
A government spokesperson said, “Any prisoner transfer is at our discretion following a careful assessment of whether it would be in the interests of justice.”
Another source added, “The UK will not tolerate modern slavery and any offender will face the full force of UK law.”
Beatrice Ekweremadu, sentenced to four years and six months, was released earlier this year and has since returned to Nigeria.
During sentencing, Mr. Justice Jeremy Johnson described the trio’s actions as a “despicable trade,” adding, “The harvesting of human organs is a form of slavery. It treats human beings and their bodies as commodities to be bought and sold.”
The court noted that Ekweremadu acted as the “driving force” behind the scheme, calling his conviction “a very substantial fall from grace.”
The case also exposed weaknesses in the UK health system’s ability to detect organ trafficking. The victim had been taken to a private renal unit at London’s Royal Free Hospital under false pretenses, with the hospital failing to alert authorities after an initial bribe attempt.
Obeta, who had previously received a trafficked kidney transplant at the same hospital in 2021, is serving a 10-year sentence in the UK, with two-thirds to be served in prison.
