THE United Kingdom government has rejected Nigeria’s request to deport former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu following president Bola Tinubu’s recent diplomatic push to have him transferred home to complete his prison sentence.
The ICIR reported that Tinubu had dispatched a high-level delegation to London on November 10, led by Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar and Attorney General Lateef Fagbemi, to negotiate Ekweremadu’s transfer from a UK prison to Nigeria.
The visit was confirmed to The ICIR by the Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Alkasim Abdulkadir, who said consultations with UK authorities were ongoing.
“The presidential delegation met with UK authorities to explore possibilities of Senator Ike Ekeweremadu to serve the remainder of his sentence in Nigeria. Consultations are ongoing,” Abdulkadir had said.
Discussions reportedly examined prisoner-transfer arrangements, compassionate parole or other reliefs allowed under UK law.
But according to The Guardian, the UK Ministry of Justice has now turned down Nigeria’s formal request for Ekweremadu’s deportation.
A source told the newspaper that the request was rejected because the British government could not obtain assurances that Nigeria would enforce the remaining prison term.
A UK government spokesperson declined to comment on Ekweremadu’s case specifically but said prisoner transfers remained entirely at the government’s discretion.
“Any prisoner transfer is at our discretion following a careful assessment of whether it would be in the interests of justice,” the official was quoted to have said.
In May 2023, a UK court sentenced Ekweremadu to nine years and eight months in prison after finding him guilty of organ trafficking under the United Kingdom’s Modern Slavery Act, the first conviction of its kind. His wife, Beatrice, was sentenced to four years and six months, while their family doctor, Obinna Obeta, received a 10-year prison term.
The trio were convicted for conspiring to exploit a young Nigerian man, David Nwamini, by arranging for the removal of his kidney to treat the couple’s ailing daughter, Sonia. The judge ruled that the defendants intended harm to the victim, who was misled into believing he would be rewarded for the organ donation.
During the trial, it was alleged that the 21-year-old street trader was to be rewarded for donating the organ to Sonia Ekweremadu in an £80,000 private procedure at London’s Royal Free Hospital.
The prosecution claimed the donor was offered up to £7,000 along with the promise of a better life in the UK, but the donor did not understand until his first appointment with a consultant at the hospital who he was there for a kidney transplant.
It was also claimed that the man was falsely presented as Sonia Ekweremadu’s cousin in a failed attempt to persuade medics to carry out the procedure.
However, in January 2025, Ekweremadu’s wife Beatrice was reportedly released from prison and had returned to Nigeria after serving her sentence.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M