The United Kingdom has turned down the Federal Government’s request to allow former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, to complete his prison sentence in Nigeria.
According to a report by Vanguard, British authorities insisted that the jailed lawmaker must serve out his term in the UK, where he is currently imprisoned after his 2023 conviction for attempting to harvest the kidney of a young man.
Ekweremadu was handed nine years and eight months in a case that shook Nigeria’s political space and drew global outrage over organ trafficking.
Recently, a delegation led by Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, recently met with officials of the UK Ministry of Justice to push for the former senator’s transfer home. The request was flatly rejected.
A UK Ministry of Justice source, quoted in the report by Vanguard, said the British government could not obtain any guarantee that Ekweremadu would continue his sentence if returned to Nigeria.
The UK will not tolerate modern slavery, and any offender will face the full force of UK law, the source said.
With the latest decision, Ekweremadu will remain in a UK correctional facility for the rest of his jail term.
Meanwhile, his wife, Beatrice Ekweremadu, who received a four-and-a-half-year sentence, has since regained freedom after serving half of her term. She returned to Nigeria earlier this year.
