The Federal Government has begun consultations with United Kingdom authorities to secure the transfer of former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, to Nigeria to complete his prison sentence. President Bola Tinubu reportedly sent a high-level delegation to meet with officials of the UK Ministry of Justice to discuss the case of the imprisoned senator.
Ekweremadu was convicted in the UK for organ trafficking after a plot to bring a 21-year-old Lagos street vendor to Britain for a kidney transplant for his daughter, Sonia. He was sentenced to nine years and eight months under the UK Modern Slavery Act in May 2023 and remains in prison, while his wife, Beatrice, received four years and six months and was released early in 2025. A medical middleman, Dr Obinna Obeta, got ten years.
The case sparked Nigerian-UK diplomatic talks, highlighted gaps in transplant regulation, and led to new investigations in the UK. Ekweremadu’s family said his daughter’s kidney disease drove the desperate act, but courts stressed that informed consent and ethical alternatives were ignored. Confirming the move by the Nigerian government, the spokesman for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, Alkasim AbdulKadir, told our correspondent that consultations were ongoing with UK authorities on the matter.
He explained that an appeal for a prisoner exchange to allow Ekweremadu to serve the remainder of his term in Nigeria had been tabled before the United Kingdom authorities. It was gathered that the delegation, which included the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Adegbite, met with officials at the UK Ministry of Justice to discuss the case. The delegation was later received at the Nigerian High Commission in London by the Acting High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ambassador Mohammed Maidugu.
Source: https://www.arise.tv/
