Adeyinka Shoyemi, a Nigerian based in west London, has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for inciting racial hatred and violence with inflammatory messages in Nigeria.
Evening Standard reported that messages, posted by accounts under the name ‘Adeyinka Grandson’, were assessed by a specialist group of officers in the Met’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit.
It said the 45-year old first came to the attention of counter-terror police in March 2019 after members of the public reported him for targeting particular ethnic groups in Nigeria.
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Shoyemi’s posts, which had commentary encouraging attacks against certain ethnic groups, were in potential breach of the law and launched a probe.
Shoyemi had on his social media pages targeted Igbos and other nationals who do not agree with his ideology.
He had also said Igbo and Fulani people are the cause of the woes in Yorubaland, and they are killing the Yorubas and raping their children.
During the #EndSARS in October 2020, Shoyemi claimed that most officers of the police unit were Fulanis and Igbos who used their positions to kill Yorubas.
The suspect who was first arrested at his home address in August 2019, and his residence searched by officers was initially charged with six counts of inciting racial hatred.
He 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, however, he flouted his bail conditions.
He was later rearrested and two more inciting racial hatred charges were added.
On Thursday, Shoyemi was sentenced to four-and-a-half years behind bars and was found guilty of eight counts of inciting racial hatred after a trial at Southwark Crown Court.
Commander Richard Smith, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, 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.
He said, the CTIRU has in over ten years, been at the forefront of getting harmful content removed from the internet and detecting and investigating potential terrorist-related activity online.
He also encouraged anyone who comes across material or posts that could be related to terrorism or violent extremist activity to report it to the police.
DAILYPOST
