The UK government has rejected Nigeria’s request to transfer former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu to serve the rest of his prison term at home. Ekweremadu is serving a nine-year, eight-month sentence for organ trafficking.
Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice, and a doctor, Obinna Obeta, were convicted in 2023 for plotting to exploit a young Nigerian man by taking his kidney for their daughter. The Guardian reports the case was the first organ-trafficking conviction under the UK’s Modern Slavery Act.
A Nigerian delegation led by Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar met UK Ministry of Justice officials last week to ask that Ekweremadu be sent back to Nigeria. A UK justice source told The Guardian the request was refused because Britain could not be sure Nigeria would enforce the remaining sentence.
The Ministry of Justice said it could not speak about individual inmates but stressed that prisoner transfers are approved only when they serve the interests of justice. Another UK official told the paper that the country “will not tolerate modern slavery.”
Beatrice Ekweremadu, who received a four-year, six-month sentence, has completed half of her term and returned to Nigeria. During sentencing, Justice Jeremy Johnson described the couple’s actions as part of a “despicable trade,” calling organ harvesting a form of slavery. He said Ekweremadu was the “driving force” behind the plot and noted his fall from public office.
The victim, identified as C, was taken to a London private hospital in February 2022 for an £80,000 transplant. He was falsely presented as a cousin who offered his kidney. The hospital declined the procedure in March 2022. The plot surfaced only after the victim fled and sought help.
Obeta, who earlier received a kidney from another alleged victim in 2021, is serving a 10-year sentence..
