Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has asked Britain to let a former top lawmaker finish his jail time back home. The request covers Ike Ekweremadu, who has served part of a nine-year sentence in London since early 2023 for trying to traffic a human organ.
Top officials, including the foreign affairs minister Yusuf Tuggar and justice minister Lateef Fagbemi, went to London on Monday to talk with British justice bosses. They laid out plans for a prisoner swap so Ekweremadu could complete his term in Nigeria.
The case started in June 2022 when police in London caught Ekweremadu and his wife Beatrice. They had brought a young man from Lagos to the UK under false pretences, hoping he would donate a kidney to their daughter Sonia at a hospital. The man, aged 21 and a street seller, had been promised a job but told police about the plot instead.
A court found Ekweremadu guilty of organ trafficking in March 2023 and locked him up for nine years and eight months. His wife got four years and six months but walked free early this year and came back to Nigeria in January. A doctor who helped in the scheme, Obinna Obeta, faces ten years inside.
Talks with UK leaders continue, and a full plea for the move has gone in. A foreign affairs voice said: “We are still chatting with British officials on this. Our ask for him to finish his time in Nigeria has been put forward to them.”
