The UK government has declined a request from the Nigerian government to deport former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who was convicted of organ trafficking.
A high-level delegation sent by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu met with officials at the UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on November 10, 2025, to discuss the possibility of Ekweremadu completing his sentence in Nigeria.
Ekweremadu, 63, is currently serving a nine-year, eight-month prison sentence after being found guilty in 2023 of conspiring to exploit a young man for his kidney.
The court ruled that Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice, and their associate, Dr. Obinna Obeta, trafficked the man to London with the intention of harvesting his organ for a transplant for Ekweremadu’s daughter, Sonia, in a private NHS hospital facility.
The case marked the UK’s first organ-trafficking conviction under the Modern Slavery Act.
According to The Guardian, the Nigerian delegation, led by Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar, formally requested that Ekweremadu be transferred to Nigeria to serve the remainder of his sentence. However, a Ministry of Justice source confirmed that the request was rejected.
The UK government reportedly declined due to concerns that Nigeria could not guarantee Ekweremadu would continue serving his sentence if returned.
