Tinubu sends high-level delegation to UK to discuss Ike Ekweremadu’s case

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has sent a high-level delegation to meet with officials at the UK Ministry of Justice to discuss the case of former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who has been detained in the United Kingdom since March 2023.

The delegation includes Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, and Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi.

Former Deputy Senate President of Nigeria, Ike Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice, and a UK-based doctor, Obinna Obeta, were arrested in June 2022 at Heathrow Airport in London.

They were accused of conspiring to traffic a young Nigerian man to the UK for the purpose of harvesting his kidney for their ailing daughter.

In March 2023, a UK court found all three guilty under the Modern Slavery Act 2015, marking the first conviction of its kind involving organ trafficking.

His wife had since been released after the completion of her jail term.

Justice Jeremy Johnson described the offence as one that exploited the vulnerability of the victim. Ekweremadu was sentenced to 9 years and 8 months in prison, his wife to 4 years and 6 months, and Dr. Obeta to 10 years.

The case drew global attention, highlighting the growing concern over cross-border human trafficking and the abuse of medical ethics