UK Rejects Nigeria’s Request to Transfer Jailed Ex-Senator Ike Ekweremadu
The United Kingdom has declined Nigeria’s request to transfer former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu to a Nigerian correctional facility to complete his prison sentence for organ trafficking.
Ekweremadu, 63, was sentenced in 2023 to nine years and eight months after a UK court found him, his wife Beatrice, and their associate, Dr. Obinna Obeta, guilty of conspiring to exploit a young Nigerian man by procuring his kidney for a transplant intended for their daughter, Sonia. The conviction was the first of its kind under the UK’s Modern Slavery Act.
A Nigerian delegation led by Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar met with UK Ministry of Justice officials last week to formally request the ex-senator’s transfer. However, a Ministry of Justice source said the proposal was rejected over concerns that the British government could not be assured Ekweremadu would serve the remainder of his sentence if returned to Nigeria.
A UK government spokesperson declined to discuss the details of the case but stressed that prisoner transfers are approved only when they align with the interests of justice. Another official reiterated Britain’s zero-tolerance policy on modern slavery, stating that offenders must “face the full weight of UK law.”
Beatrice Ekweremadu, who was handed a four-and-a-half-year sentence, has completed the custodial portion of her term and has returned to Nigeria. During sentencing, Justice Jeremy Johnson condemned the trio’s actions as a “despicable trade,” noting that organ harvesting treats people as disposable and represents a severe abuse of power. He described Ekweremadu as the mastermind of the scheme, calling the case a “dramatic fall from grace.”
The trial revealed troubling lapses within the UK’s safeguards against organ trafficking. The victim, identified in court as C, was taken to the Royal Free Hospital in early 2022 under the false claim that he was Sonia Ekweremadu’s cousin and had consented to donate his kidney for £80,000. Although a medical secretary was bribed, hospital clinicians declined to proceed. The matter was not immediately reported, and the plot collapsed only after the victim fled, fearing further exploitation.
Investigators later uncovered that Dr. Obeta had himself undergone a kidney transplant at the same hospital in 2021, allegedly using another trafficked donor. He is serving a 10-year sentence, with two-thirds required to be served in prison.
Nigeria’s attempt to secure Ekweremadu’s repatriation has triggered public debate, with critics questioning why similar efforts have not been made for more than 230 Nigerians currently imprisoned in the UK. The Nigerian High Commission in London has not yet responded to enquiries regarding the matter.
