UK REJECTS NIGERIA’S REQUEST TO TRANSFER EKWEREMADU 

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 reported 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.

As RockcityFM had reported, the conviction was the first under the UK’s modern slavery act for organ trafficking.

A Nigerian 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 ministry of justice reportedly rejected the request over concerns that Nigeria could not guarantee Ekweremadu would continue serving his sentence after return.