President Bola Tinubu has moved to secure the transfer of former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, from a United Kingdom prison to Nigeria.
The delegation, which reportedly arrived in London on Monday, November 10, includes the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi.
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The spokesperson to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alkasim Abdulkadir, confirmed the visit, stating that the team met with officials of the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Justice to discuss legal and diplomatic options surrounding Ekweremadu’s imprisonment.
He said, “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.”
Sources within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Daily Trust that the mission was part of President Bola Tinubu’s broader diplomatic effort to secure either an early release or a review of Ekweremadu’s sentence on humanitarian and legal grounds. The discussions reportedly centre on prisoner-transfer agreements, compassionate parole, or other reliefs permitted under UK law.
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.
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