Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Henry Owen
President Bola Tinubu has dispatched a high-level delegation to London to hold talks with British authorities over the case of former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who has been imprisoned in the United Kingdom since March 2023.
The delegation, led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, arrived in London on Monday and met with officials of the UK Ministry of Justice. The purpose of the visit is to negotiate the possibility of transferring Ekweremadu to Nigeria to serve the remainder of his sentence.
Ike Ekweremadu’s imprisonment followed a high-profile case that shocked both Nigeria and the international community. In June 2022, the former Deputy Senate President, his wife Beatrice, and a Nigerian doctor, Obinna Obeta, were arrested and charged in the United Kingdom for conspiring to arrange the travel of a 21-year-old Nigerian man from Lagos to London for the purpose of harvesting his kidney.
The organ was intended for their daughter, Sonia, who suffers from a serious kidney condition. Prosecutors told the court that the accused attempted to present the young donor as Sonia’s cousin to satisfy British medical and ethical transplant requirements. It was further alleged that the donor had been promised £7,000 and a job in the UK in exchange for agreeing to the procedure.
The trial, which took place at the Old Bailey in London, was treated under the UK’s Modern Slavery Act, making it the first case of its kind involving public officials from Nigeria. On March 23, 2023, Ekweremadu, his wife, and Dr. Obeta were found guilty of conspiring to exploit the young man for his organ. They were sentenced on May 5, 2023, with Ekweremadu receiving nine years and eight months in prison, his wife four years and six months, and Dr. Obeta ten years.
During sentencing, the presiding judge described the crime as “people-trafficking across international borders for the harvesting of human organs, a trade that preys on poverty, misery, and desperation.”
The current diplomatic mission by President Tinubu’s delegation marks the Nigerian government’s first formal attempt to open discussions with the UK on the matter. The talks are expected to explore legal and humanitarian options for Ekweremadu’s transfer, though such arrangements are often subject to strict international legal procedures.
Ekweremadu’s case remains one of the most controversial in Nigeria’s political and legal history, raising deep questions about ethics, desperation, and the human cost of political privilege.
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