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<p>By Yusuf Danjuma Yunusa</p>
<p>In a significant diplomatic development, the United Kingdom has turned down a formal appeal from the Federal Government of Nigeria to repatriate convicted former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu.</p>
<p>Ekweremadu was sentenced in the UK to nine years and eight months imprisonment for organ trafficking, specifically for conspiring to bring a 21-year-old Nigerian street trader to London to exploit him for a kidney.</p><div class="atklHlen" style="clear:both;float:left;width:100%;margin:0 0 20px 0;"><script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>

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<p>The decision underscores the UK&#8217;s firm stance on the crime, despite high-level diplomatic efforts from Nigeria. Earlier this month, President Bola Tinubu had dispatched a senior delegation to engage with UK authorities in a bid to secure the transfer.</p>
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<p>The delegation, which met with officials at the UK Ministry of Justice in London, included Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi.</p>
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<p>The team was later received at the Nigerian High Commission in London by Ambassador Mohammed Maidugu, the Acting High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>According to credible sources, the meeting formed part of President Bola Tinubu’s efforts to secure either Ekweremadu’s early release or a review of his sentence on humanitarian and legal grounds.</p>
<p>But UK Guardian reported on Monday that British government rejected the request.</p>
<p>A source at the Ministry of Justice was quoted confirming that the request was rejected.</p>
<p>“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 report read.</p>
<p>A government spokesperson said it could not comment on individual prisoners. They added: “Any prisoner transfer is at our discretion following a careful assessment of whether it would be in the interests of justice.”</p>
<p>A source said: “The UK will not tolerate modern slavery and any offender will face the full force of UK law.”</p>
<p>The wife of Ekweremadu, Beatrice, who was sentenced to four years and six months, with half spent in custody, was released earlier this year and has since returned to Nigeria.</p>
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