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A migration and returns agreement signed during President Bola Tinubu’s state visit to the United Kingdom has reopened questions about the potential repatriation of former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who is currently serving a nearly ten-year prison sentence in Britain for organ trafficking — making him, by the strict legal terms of the new deal, among the Nigerian nationals eligible for return under its provisions covering convicted foreign offenders.
The agreement, signed on March 18 and 19 during the first state visit by a Nigerian leader to the UK in 37 years, was finalized between UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.
UK authorities estimate that approximately 961 Nigerian nationals have exhausted their asylum appeals, while an additional 1,110 individuals classified as foreign national offenders are currently awaiting deportation — a combined figure of more than 2,000 people immediately eligible for removal under the new framework.
The deal’s most operationally significant provision addresses a procedural blockage that had for years allowed deportation proceedings to stall. Nigeria has agreed to accept UK-issued diplomatic notes — referred to as “UK letters” — as valid identification documents for Nigerian deportees who do not hold valid passports, removing what the Home Office described as one of the most persistent administrative obstacles to completing removals.
Previously, the UK had been required to wait for Nigerian authorities to issue emergency travel certificates for each individual deportee — a process that could take months and was frequently contested. First accelerated removals under the new framework are expected within weeks of the agreement’s signing.
Ekweremadu, 63, was convicted at London’s Central Criminal Court in March 2023 and sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison after being found guilty of plotting to bring a 21-year-old Lagos street vendor, David Nwamini, to the United Kingdom under false pretenses to harvest one of his kidneys for his daughter, who suffers from kidney disease. His wife, Beatrice Ekweremadu, received a sentence of four years and six months for her role in the conspiracy. Dr. Obinna Obeta, a medical doctor involved in the case, received a ten-year term. Beatrice Ekweremadu completed her sentence and returned to Nigeria in January 2025.
The Nigerian federal government had previously sought Ekweremadu’s transfer to Nigeria before the completion of his sentence.
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In November 2025, Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar and Attorney General Lateef Fagbemi led a delegation to London to press the case with British authorities.
Those discussions did not produce an agreement: UK officials declined to authorize a transfer, citing concerns about whether Nigerian authorities could guarantee that Ekweremadu would continue serving his sentence if returned. The new bilateral framework, while not specifically addressing prisoner transfers, has reopened the question in both Abuja and London.
A senior Nigerian government official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the possibility of Ekweremadu’s return under the agreement existed but stressed that no active consideration was underway.
“It may happen; I cannot overrule it. But at the moment, nothing of that nature is on the table. Any such arrangement would require coordination between the relevant legal authorities in both countries,” the official said. A second senior official, also declining to speak on the record, said simply: “It will be good for him if he benefits from it.”
Senior lawyer Bankole Akomolafe, speaking to the implications of the agreement’s application to a convicted prisoner, drew a firm legal line.
“He has been tried and convicted; that is the judicial process. A bilateral agreement cannot nullify a valid court sentence. If he is transferred, the terms must be respected. It would be a breach of agreement for him to be released without completing his sentence, except through lawful processes such as a pardon,” Akomolafe said.
The distinction he draws between a deportation of a person who has already served a sentence and the mid-sentence transfer of a prisoner whose custodial term is still running is one that legal experts say would require specific bilateral prisoner transfer protocols, separate from the migration and returns framework signed last week.
The agreement’s scope extends well beyond Ekweremadu’s individual case and covers several dimensions of immigration enforcement that both governments have identified as requiring closer coordination. Both countries committed to strengthening intelligence sharing and launching joint enforcement operations targeting criminal networks that exploit visa systems, including those linked to fraudulent job sponsorships, sham marriages, and forged financial and employment records. A new standardized document verification system will be introduced to check the authenticity of visa applications, and Nigeria agreed to review its domestic laws to impose stricter penalties for immigration-related offenses.
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A separate joint initiative targeting online fraud — including romance scams, investment fraud, and cryptocurrency-related crimes — will be launched using a “fusion cell” model bringing together government agencies, financial institutions, technology firms, and telecommunications operators to share intelligence and coordinate responses. The scope of the anti-fraud cooperation reflects both countries’ acknowledgment that the volume of Nigeria-linked online financial crime has become a bilateral issue that neither government can address through unilateral enforcement alone.
Annual deportations from the UK to Nigeria have nearly doubled to approximately 1,150, and the UK has carried out close to 60,000 total removals of individuals without legal right to remain since the 2024 general election. The agreement is being framed by the Starmer government as part of a broader campaign to demonstrate control over immigration, and Home Office minister Alex Norris said in a statement that “those who have no right to be here are swiftly removed.” Tunji-Ojo characterized it differently, describing it as a responsible bilateral framework that would be “sustained for generations” and treating it as a potential model for similar arrangements between Nigeria and other nations. On his X account, the interior minister said the deal provides for “dignified return and reintegration,” including safeguards for vulnerable individuals and potential trafficking victims.
Key operational details of the agreement — including its start date, duration, financial commitments, and the specific conditions under which each category of returnee will be processed — were not made public at the time of signing.
Ekweremadu’s legal representatives had not issued a public statement on the agreement as of Friday, and neither the UK Home Office nor Nigeria’s Ministry of Interior confirmed whether his case was under active consideration within the framework of the new deal.
