(AFRICAN EXAMINER) - President Bola Tinubu has dispatched a high-level delegation to London to talk about the case of Ike Ekweremadu, former deputy senate president, who has been in prison in the UK since March 2023.
The delegation has Yusuf Tuggar, minister of foreign affairs, and Lateef Fagbemi, attorney general and minister of justice.
The team came to London on Monday and met with the officials of the UK's Ministry of Justice.
Alkasim Abdulkadir, Tuggar's spokesperson, told the press on Tuesday that the presidential delegation was in London to liaise with the UK authorities concerning the possibilities of Ekeweremadu serving the remainder of his prison term in Nigeria.
The Ekweremadus were arrested by the London Metropolitan Police in June 2022 after a man was falsely presented to a private renal unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London as a cousin to their daughter, Sonia, in what turned out to be a failed attempt to persuade medics to carry out an £80,000 kidney transplant.
The 21-year-old man, who was allegedly promised work in the United Kingdom, reported the matter to the police in May of the same year, stating that he had been brought to the country for an organ transplant.
In March 2023, former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu was found guilty of organ trafficking by a UK court. His wife, Beatrice, and Obinna Obeta, a medical doctor linked to the case, were also convicted. It was the first verdict of its kind under the UK's Modern Slavery Act.
On May 5, 2023, Ekweremadu was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison. His wife received four years and six months, while Dr Obeta was handed a ten-year sentence. In his ruling, Judge Jeremy Johnson directed that Beatrice should serve half of her sentence in custody and the remainder on licence.