The United Kingdom government has rejected a request from the Federal Government of Nigeria to allow former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, to complete his prison sentence in Nigeria.
Ekweremadu, who is currently serving time in a UK prison, was convicted in March 2023 for organ trafficking. A UK court found him guilty of conspiring to exploit a young man’s kidney for transplant purposes and subsequently sentenced him to nine years and eight months.
Earlier in November, President Bola Tinubu sent a delegation to London to discuss the case and explore the possibility of transferring Ekweremadu to Nigeria.
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, reported that the request was rejected.
According to the report, the UK was not convinced that Nigeria could guarantee that Ekweremadu would continue serving his prison term after returning home.
The official was quoted as saying, “Any prisoner transfer is at our discretion following a careful assessment of whether it would be in the interests of justice,” adding that “The UK will not tolerate modern slavery and any offender will face the full force of UK law.”
Ekweremadu’s trouble began in June 2022 when he, his wife Beatrice, and a Nigerian doctor, Obinna Obeta, were arrested by the London Metropolitan Police.
They were accused of bringing a 21-year-old man to London under false claims that he was a cousin, in an attempt to carry out an £80,000 kidney transplant for their daughter, Sonia.
The young man later reported to the police that he had been misled and promised work in the UK.
In March 2023, a UK court convicted the trio for organ trafficking, making it the first conviction of its kind under the UK Modern Slavery Act.
Ekweremadu was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison, his wife received four years and six months, while Obeta got a 10-year sentence.
The judge ruled that Beatrice would serve half of her term in custody and the remainder on licence. She was eventually released in January and returned to Nigeria.
(TheNigerianLawyer)