FG sends high-Level delegation to the UK to negotiate Ekweremadu’s prisoner transfer

The Nigerian Federal Government has dispatched a high-level delegation to the United Kingdom to engage British authorities in an attempt to secure the transfer or early release of former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.
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Ekweremadu is currently serving a nine-year and eight-month sentence in a UK prison for his conviction in an organ harvesting plot. The delegation, which included the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, met with officials at the UK Ministry of Justice in London on Monday.
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Senator Ike Ekweremadu, a veteran lawmaker, was convicted in March 2023 at the Old Bailey alongside his wife, Beatrice, and a medical doctor, Obinna Obeta, in a case under the UK’s Modern Slavery Act. They were found guilty of conspiring to traffic a young Nigerian man, David Nwamini, to the UK with the intention of illegally harvesting his kidney to treat their ailing daughter, Sonia. The conviction drew global attention and resulted in a sentence of nine years and eight months for Ekweremadu. His wife, Beatrice, was sentenced to four years and six months but was reportedly released and returned to Nigeria in early 2025.
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The current diplomatic mission, mandated by President Bola Tinubu, is to seek relief for the former Deputy Senate President. The Nigerian government is reportedly exploring several avenues, including, utilizing the existing UK-Nigeria Agreement on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons (signed in 2014) to allow Ekweremadu to serve the remainder of his sentence in a Nigerian prison and also seeking early release or sentence review on humanitarian and legal grounds under specific provisions of UK law.
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The 2014 Prisoner Transfer Agreement between the two nations does allow for the transfer of sentenced persons, provided both countries consent and specific conditions are met, including the finality of the judgment and the offense being a crime in the receiving state.
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