The British Government has turned down a request by Nigeria to deport former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who is serving a prison term in the United Kingdom for organ trafficking, The Guardian UK reports on Monday.
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.
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.
However, The Guardian quoted a Ministry of Justice source as saying the request was rejected over concerns that Nigeria could not guarantee Ekweremadu would continue serving his sentence after return.
The UK government, according to the report, 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.”
Another UK government source told the paper that “the UK will not tolerate modern slavery and any offender will face the full force of UK law.”
Beatrice Ekweremadu, who was sentenced to four years and six months, has since been released after serving half of her term and is back in Nigeria.
During sentencing, Justice Jeremy Johnson described the trio’s actions as part of a “despicable trade.”
He said, “The harvesting of human organs is a form of slavery. It treats human beings and their bodies as commodities to be bought and sold.”
He called Ekweremadu the “driving force” behind the plot, noting that the case marked a “substantial fall from grace.”
In February 2022, the victim, identified in court as C, was taken to a private renal unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London for a proposed £80,000 transplant.
He was falsely presented as Sonia’s cousin who had volunteered to donate his kidney.
Despite an attempt to bribe a medical secretary, the hospital rejected the procedure in March 2022 but did not report it to the police.
The plot came to light only when the victim fled and sought help, saying he feared being taken to Nigeria for another attempt.
Obeta had earlier received a kidney transplant at the same hospital in 2021 from another allegedly trafficked donor.
He is serving a 10-year sentence, two-thirds of which must be spent in custody.
Nigeria’s attempt to secure Ekweremadu’s return sparked criticism among Nigerians.
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