Tinubu Seeks Early Release of Ike Ekweremadu in UK as 2027 Election Pressure Mounts
President Bola Tinubu’s push for a second term has taken an unusual diplomatic turn, as he is now deploying high-level envoys to the United Kingdom to negotiate the early release of former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who is currently serving a nine-year sentence for organ harvesting handed down by a British court in 2023.
The move comes at a time when opposition blocs across multiple parties are consolidating under the ADC coalition ahead of the 2027 general elections, even as fresh allegations of Christian genocide—recently reignited by former U.S. President Donald Trump—continue to intensify political pressure on the administration.
Details obtained by PulseNets indicate that on Monday, the federal government confirmed that Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar and Attorney General of the Federation Lateef Fagbemi had arrived in the UK to engage British authorities on securing Mr. Ekweremadu’s premature release, despite the fact that he has served less than three of his nine-year-eight-month sentence.
Ekweremadu was convicted for bringing a 21-year-old Nigerian to the UK with the intent of harvesting his kidney for the lawmaker’s daughter, Sonia. The young man had earlier told the Metropolitan Police that he believed he was travelling for a job opportunity and had no knowledge of any plan to remove his organ. Both Ekweremadu and his wife were consequently found guilty and sentenced for orchestrating the scheme without the young man’s consent.
PulseNets learnt that the timing of the diplomatic mission aligns closely with the recent defection of Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah from the Peoples Democratic Party to the ruling All Progressives Congress—a political shift that many analysts see as confirmation that full-scale manoeuvring for the 2027 elections has begun.
Until recently, Mr. Tinubu appeared largely disengaged from Ekweremadu’s legal troubles. From the lawmaker’s arrest in 2022, through the intense months of the 2023 presidential campaign, and even after Ekweremadu’s sentencing in March 2023 when Tinubu was declared president-elect, the administration maintained a noticeable distance from the case.
However, his sudden interest in negotiating an early release—barely 15 months to the next presidential election—has triggered speculation that the president is seeking strategic political capital in the South-East. Analysts who spoke to PulseNets noted that the move may reflect deeper electoral anxieties within the ruling party.
In the 2023 presidential election, Mr. Tinubu secured only 4,772 votes in Enugu, the home state of the imprisoned ex-lawmaker. The South-East region overwhelmingly supported Labour Party candidate Peter Obi, who defeated Tinubu by wide margins across the geopolitical zone.
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The issue is further complicated by the longstanding detention of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, who faces treason charges linked to his separatist agitation. His continued incarceration remains a highly emotive concern in the region.
With Mr. Tinubu’s popularity in the South-East still deeply limited, political observers believe that facilitating Ekweremadu’s early release may be a calculated effort to win hearts ahead of 2027. Whether the strategy succeeds, however, remains to be seen.
