NIGERIA: Tinubu Sends Delegation to UK to Negotiate Ekweremadu’s Transfer to Nigeria

By Ameenat Hamzat, Lagos, Nigeria 

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has dispatched a high-level delegation to London to negotiate the possible transfer of former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who has been serving a prison sentence in the United Kingdom since March 2023.

The delegation, which includes Yusuf Tuggar, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Lateef Fagbemi, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, arrived in London on Monday and met with officials of the UK’s Ministry of Justice.

Background of the Case

Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, were arrested by the London Metropolitan Police in June 2022 after allegedly attempting to traffic a 21-year-old man for organ harvesting. The man was falsely presented to a private renal unit at Royal Free Hospital, London, as a cousin to their daughter, Sonia, who required a kidney transplant.

The victim, who was reportedly promised employment in the UK, alerted the police in May 2022, claiming he was brought into the country under false pretences for the transplant.

In March 2023, a UK court found Ekweremadu, his wife, and a medical doctor, Obinna Obeta, guilty of organ trafficking, a verdict delivered under the UK Modern Slavery Act, marking the first conviction of its kind.

On May 5, 2023, the court sentenced Ekweremadu to nine years and eight months imprisonment, Beatrice to four years and six months, while Obeta received a 10-year sentence. The presiding judge, Justice Jeremy Johnson, ruled that Beatrice would serve half her term in custody and the rest on licence.

However, in January 2025, Beatrice was released from prison and has since returned to Nigeria.