Nigerian delegation engages UK over Ekweremadu’s conviction

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has dispatched a high-level delegation to the United Kingdom to engage officials of the UK Ministry of Justice on the continued detention of former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

The delegation, led by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, and Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, met with top UK officials on Monday in what sources describe as a renewed diplomatic effort by the Nigerian government to review the circumstances surrounding Ekweremadu’s imprisonment.

Following the meeting, the team was received by Nigeria’s Acting High Commissioner to the UK, Ambassador Mohammed Maidugu, at the Nigerian High Commission in London.

This move comes amid growing diplomatic engagement between Nigeria and the UK on sensitive legal cases involving high-profile Nigerians.

Senator Ekweremadu, alongside his wife, Beatrice, and a medical doctor, was convicted in March 2023 for conspiring to facilitate the travel of a young man to the UK for the purpose of organ harvesting, a violation of the UK’s Modern Slavery Act.

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The former lawmaker was sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison, becoming the first high-ranking politician to be convicted under the Modern Slavery Act, a ruling that drew global attention and underscored that no individual, regardless of status, is above the law.

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