Members of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, PGF, led by its Chairman, Governor of Imo State Hope Uzodinma, paid a solidarity visit to the Niger State Governor, Mohammed Umar Bago, at the Government House in Minna.

A high-level delegation sent by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu met with officials at the UK Ministry of Justice today to discuss the case of former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who has been detained in Britain since March 2023.

The delegation included Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi. The meeting signals a renewed diplomatic effort by the Tinubu administration regarding the high-profile detention. Following the talks, the delegation was received at the Nigerian High Commission in London by Ambassador Mohammed Maidugu, the Acting High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

This high-level intervention from the Nigerian government occurs against a backdrop of increasing—and sometimes contentious—engagement between the British and Nigerian legal systems involving public figures.

Senator Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice, and a doctor were convicted in March 2023 of conspiring to arrange the travel of a young man to the UK to exploit him for his kidney, a crime under the Modern Slavery Act.

Ekweremadu was subsequently sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison. His detention and conviction mark the first verdict of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act and sent a global message that powerful political figures are not above the law.

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the Saturday Anambra State governorship election, Nicholas Ukachukwu, has said that he is still gathering information from his party agents after which he would take decisions on the outcome of the election after Prof. Chukwuma Soludo was declared winner of the poll by INEC.

However, in his reaction to the outcome of the election during a press briefing in Awka today, Ukachukwu said 99,445 voters in the state voted for him because they wanted Anambra to move forward.

He said for the fact that about 99,445 people voted for him on Saturday, meant that the APC has come to stay in Anambra and will soon dominate the state.

He said, “From the beginning of the primary till the election proper, we made a diligent effort. The election has come and gone. I congratulate my team members and campaign council, they showed they were all gallant soldiers.

“My supporters including my running mate were intimidat€d by thμgs and prevented from casting their votes in their polling units. They arr€sted one of our agents and kept him somewhere until after the election.

“When you look at where we are coming from, you will understand that we made appreciable effort. What happened is a story for another day. We are still collating data and gathering information from our party agents and after that we will know what to do. I am still consulting with my party to know the step or action to take.

“For the first time in the history of the election, the APC scored almost 100,000 votes without any inducement. But they accused us of vote-buying, can the APC candidate who is not a sitting governor buy vote?

“If the APC candidate bought votes like the APGA candidate, the result would have been obvious. And if you see the level of violence, the people they arrested were all APC members. The house they burnt belonged to an APC member. The woman defeated them in her polling booth, but they went to burn down her house, was it APC that burnt down the house?

“Those who bμrnt the house have not been arr€sted. Whatever decision I am going to take, I must carry those 99,445 voters who voted for me along. They voted for me because they want Anambra to move forward. I must consult them. Like I said, I will hear from them. APC is here and it’s here to stay.”