By Abiola Olawale
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has reportedly dispatched a high-level delegation to the United Kingdom to formally negotiate the potential transfer of former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who is currently serving a jail sentence in a UK prison.
The reported move is said to be a concerted effort by the Nigerian government to leverage bilateral ties and existing international frameworks to seek the early return of the former lawmaker, convicted last year for an organ trafficking plot.
A source quoted in a media report said the delegation, which includes the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, met with officials from the UK Ministry of Justice on Monday.
Their primary focus is understood to be the mechanics of an early release and potential transfer under the Repatriation of Prisoners Act or similar bilateral agreements between Nigeria and the UK.
The New Diplomat reports that Ekweremadu was sentenced in May 2023 to nine years and eight months in prison by the Old Bailey for conspiring to bring a young man from Lagos to the UK to harvest his kidney for his ailing daughter, Sonia. His wife, Beatrice Ekweremadu, was also convicted but was released earlier this year after serving a shorter term.
The London Metropolitan Police arrested the Ekweremadus in June 2022, after a man was falsely presented to a private renal unit at Royal Free Hospital in London as a cousin to their daughter Sonia, in what turned out to be a failed attempt to persuade medics to carry out an £80,000 transplant.
The 21-year-old man, who was allegedly promised work in the UK, reported the matter to the police in May of the same year, stating that he was brought to the country for an organ transplant.
In March 2023, the former presiding officer of Nigeria’s red chamber was found guilty of organ trafficking by a UK court.
Beatrice, his wife, and Obinna Obeta, a doctor involved in the case, were also found guilty.
It was the first verdict of its kind under the UK Modern Slavery Act.
