The UK government has declined to deport Nigeria’s former deputy speaker, Ike Ekweremadu, convicted and imprisoned for organ harvesting in 2023, over raging concern that he would walk free and not serve his sentence if he returns prematurely to Nigeria.

As President Bola Tinubu’s administration grows desperate to appease the South Easterners and secure their votes for his 2027 re-election bid, the Nigerian leader sent envoys to the UK to beg for the premature release of Mr Ekweremadu under the pretext of deportation, pleading that he should be allowed to complete his sentence in Nigeria.

Minister of foreign affairs Yusuf Tuggar and attorney-general of the federation Lateef Fagbemi delivered the president’s message but the UK rejected the request, asserting Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government remained unconvinced that the organ harvester wouldn’t evade justice when he lands on Nigerian soil.

“A source at the MoJ has confirmed the request was rejected,” UK Guardian broke the news on Monday. “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 UK will not tolerate modern slavery and any offender will face the full force of UK law,” UK Guardian cited the source as saying.

“Any prisoner transfer is at our discretion following a careful assessment of whether it would be in the interests of justice,” the newspaper reported, quoting a government official.

Mr Ekweremadu, 63, was handed a nine-year, eight-month sentence for luring a trader from Nigeria to the UK to harvest his kidney for his ailing daughter, Sonia. His wife, Beatrice Ekweremadu, was similarly sentenced to four years and six months.

Having served half of her sentence, she was released earlier this year and has since returned to Nigeria.

The man, whose identity the UK Metropolitan withheld, said he was not informed he would be donating his kidney.

He told the police and later court that Mr Ekweremafu offered him a job in the UK and he thought the initial medical tests were routine for the job.

He later grew suspicious that his organ might be harvested without his consent and swiftly reported to the authorities, who charged Mr Ekweremadu to court.

Justice Jeremy Johnson described the trio, including Dr Obinna Obeta, hired for the procedure, as “despicable.”