The UK government has rejected a request by Nigeria to deport a former senior Nigerian politician convicted of organ trafficking.
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Ike Ekweremadu, 63, a former deputy president of the Nigerian senate and ally of the former president Goodluck Jonathan, is serving a sentence of nine years and eight months after being found guilty in 2023 of conspiring to exploit a man for his kidney.
Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice, and a co-conspirator, Dr Obinna Obeta, trafficked a young man to London with a view to harvesting his kidney, which they planned to transplant to Ekweremadu’s daughter Sonia in a private unit of an NHS hospital.
It was the first conviction for organ trafficking under the Modern Slavery Act.
Last week, a Nigerian government delegation, led by the foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, met officials at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to discuss Ekweremadu’s case. The delegation requested his deportation so he could serve his remaining sentence in Nigeria.
The UK’s Home Office cited “public safety risks and the need to uphold judicial integrity” as primary reasons for the denial, according to a statement obtained by The Guardian. “While we recognize the humanitarian aspects of prisoner transfers, this case involves serious exploitation of vulnerable individuals, and any relocation must not undermine the sentence imposed by British courts,” the statement read. Ekweremadu, his wife Beatrice (sentenced to four years and nine months), and their doctor, Obinna Obeta (10 years), were found guilty in May 2023 of conspiring to traffic a 21-year-old street vendor from Lagos to London for illegal kidney harvesting to benefit the Ekweremadus’ ailing daughter, Sonia.
A source at the MoJ has confirmed the request was rejected. It is understood the UK government was concerned that Nigeria could offer no guarantees that Ekweremadu would continue his prison sentence after being deported
A government spokesperson said it could not comment on individual prisoners. They added: “Any prisoner transfer is at our discretion following a careful assessment of whether it would be in the interests of justice.”
A source said: “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, with half spent in custody, was released earlier this year and has since returned to Nigeria.
In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Jeremy Johnson said all three conspirators played a part in 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.”
The judge described Ekweremadu as the “driving force” behind the organ-trafficking plot, and said his conviction represented “a very substantial fall from grace”.
His Old Bailey trial exposed vulnerability and complacency in the UK health system to organ trafficking.
In February 2022, the young man whom Ekweremadu trafficked to London was taken to a private renal unit at the Royal Free hospital in London. It was falsely claimed that man was Sonia’s cousin and had agreed to the £80,000 transplant.
Despite bribing a medical secretary the attempted transplant by the Ekweremadus was rejected by the hospital in March 2022. But the medics did not report the incident to the police.
The plot was discovered only when the victim, referred to as C in court, fled to the police in fear of his life because he believed he was being lined up by Obeta for another transplant in Nigeria.
Obeta had himself received a kidney transplant at the Royal Free in July 2021 from another man allegedly trafficked from Nigeria. He was sentenced to 10 years, two-thirds of which must be served in prison.
Nigeria’s request to deport Ekweremadu has been criticised in his home country, and raised questions about why the Abuja government has not tried to intervene over more than 230 other Nigerians imprisoned in the UK.
Nigeria’s high commission in London has been approached for comment.
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