The United Kingdom has rejected the Federal Government’s request for former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu to serve the remainder of his prison sentence in Nigeria.
UK officials insisted that the lawmaker must finish his nine years jail term in Britain, where he has been detained since his 2023 conviction for attempting to harvest a young man’s kidney, with no room for a cross-border transfer.
Earlier this month, President Tinubu sent Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar and Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi to London to discuss Ekweremadu’s case and the possibility of transferring his sentence to Nigeria.
However, according to the UK Guardian, which quoted an unnamed Ministry of Justice official, the request was turned down.
“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,” the newspaper quoted.
The official added, “Any prisoner transfer is at our discretion following a careful assessment of whether it would be in the interests of justice. The UK will not tolerate modern slavery and any offender will face the full force of UK law.”
