Crime

Nigerian, 45, jailed in UK for inciting ethnic hatred

Shoyemi

By Florence Kalu

A 45 year old Nigerian based in west London United kingdom has been jailed for four and a half years for posting inflammatory messages encouraging violence in Nigeria.

The Nigerian, Adeyinka Shoyemi, a Yoruba activist of Powis Terrace in Notting Hill was sentenced by the Southwark Crown Court after he was twice arrested over the offence.

He first came to the attention of counter-terror police in March 2019 after members of the public tipped them off about his posts under his account name ‘Adeyinka Grandson’, which is believed to have targeted particular ethnic groups in Nigeria.

The specialist group of officers in the Met’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) assessed messages under the account name.

Posts contained in the account were found to contain commentaries encouraging attacks against certain ethnic groups, they launched a probe on discovering they were in potential breach of the law.

He was first arrested at his home address in August 2019, with officers searching three properties linked to him and seizing various digital devices.

Shoyemi was initially charged with six counts of inciting racial hatred but was released on bail with a condition not to post any more social media posts which were threatening, abusive or insulting to any ethnic groups.

But he was later rearrested after he flouted his bail conditions to make more of the posts.

Consequently two more inciting racial hatred charges were added.

Shoyemi was sentenced to four and a half years behind bars on Thursday.

He was found guilty on November 30 of eight counts of inciting racial hatred.

Smith

The head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, Richard Smith, said: “Our Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit – the first of its kind to be established anywhere in the world – was instrumental in identifying Shoyemi and his activity.

“Over the last ten years, the CTIRU has been at the forefront of getting harmful content removed from the internet, and detecting and investigating potential terrorist-related activity online.

“We continue to need the help and support of the public and I would encourage anyone who comes across material or posts that could be related to terrorism or violent extremist activity to report it to us, so that our specialist officers can take action where necessary.”

It will be recalled that renowned playwright and Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, had at a time condemned a video circulating the social media posted by a group called Young Yoruba for freedom (YYF) led by Shoyemi, calling on Igbo people to leave the South-west region within 48 hours or face dire consequences.