The United Kingdom has turned down a request by the Nigerian government to allow former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, to complete his prison sentence in Nigeria.

Ekweremadu is currently serving a nine-year, eight-month jail term in a UK facility following his 2023 conviction for conspiring to harvest the kidney of a young man for an illegal transplant intended for his sick daughter. The high-profile case drew global attention and became the first-ever organ-trafficking conviction under the UK’s Modern Slavery Act.

A Nigerian delegation led by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, recently met with officials of the UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to seek Ekweremadu’s transfer through deportation so that he could serve the remainder of his sentence in Nigeria.

However, according to a report by The Guardian UK, the British authorities rejected the request. A senior MoJ official stated that the UK could not obtain the necessary guarantees that Ekweremadu would continue to serve his sentence if returned to Nigeria.

“The UK will not tolerate modern slavery, and any offender will face the full force of UK law,” the source was quoted as saying.

With the refusal, Ekweremadu will remain in the UK to complete his sentence.

His wife, Beatrice Ekweremadu, who was sentenced to four and a half years — half of which she served in custody — was released earlier this year and has since returned to Nigeria.