The United Kingdom has refused to grant Nigeria’s request to return former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
The Guardian of UK reports that a Ministry of Justice source said the request was rejected on the believe that Nigeria could not guarantee Ekweremadu would serve his full jail term after return.
The UK government said it could not comment on specific prisoners but stressed that any transfer “is at our discretion following a careful assessment of whether it would be in the interests of justice.”
The paper quoted another UK government source saying “the UK will not tolerate modern slavery and any offender will face the full force of UK law.”
Ekweremadu’s wife, Beatrice who was sentenced to four years and six months, has since been set free after serving half of her term and is back in Nigeria.
Ekweremadu, 63, was jailed for nine years and eight months in 2023 after a UK court found him, his wife, Beatrice, and a medical doctor, Obinna Obeta, guilty of conspiring to exploit a young Nigerian man for his kidney.
The kidney was intended for their daughter, Sonia, in a private London hospital.
According to The Guardian, the conviction was the first under the UK’s Modern Slavery Act for organ trafficking.
It would be recalled that Nigeria’s delegation, led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, met officials at the UK Ministry of Justice last week to request that Ekweremadu be transferred home to serve the remainder of his sentence.
