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A Nigerian national, 45-year-old Adeyinka Shoyemi, who resides in West London, has been convicted for inciting racial and ethnic hatred with inflammatory messages encouraging violence in Nigeria.
Shoyemi was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison on Thursday, March 31, 2022.
Shoyemi’s sentence was announced, after he had earlier been found guilty on November 30, 2021, of eight counts of inciting racial hatred following a trial at Southwark Crown Court.
Operating on social media with the name “Adeyinka Grandson” the West London resident was accused by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command of posting hate messages targeted at certain ethnic groups in Nigeria.
Adeyinka Grandson, is the president of the Young Yorubas for Freedom (YYF) secessionists. He is known for his social media attacks on people of Igbo extraction as well as criticism of the Hausa-Fulani.
Scotland Yard Counter Terrorism Command, had nabbed him for allegedly “stirring racial discrimination” against the Igbo and Fulani ethnic groups and also “encouraging terrorism.”
On several counts he had issued ‘quit notices’ to Igbo living in Yoruba land, else they would face dire consequences.
Grandson is also known for making anti-Igbo and anti-Fulani speeches on his YouTube channel for which the UK authorities have consistently warned him before he was later arrested.
The Met Police started investigating the convict in March 2019 following complaints from the members of the public regarding his online activities.
According to the statement by the Met Police, Shoyemi was first arrested in August 2019 and officers recovered various digital devices from his home after a thorough search.
Following his arrest, the Scotland Yard Counter Terrorism Command grilled him for 9 hours, and his house was searched by the London Metropolitan Police following a warrant granted by the Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Items found on him during the arrest include, passport, two Google phones, one Apple MacBook laptop computer, one tablet, a hard drive and a draft copy of his new book were seized.
After the specialist officers within the Met’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) carefully assessed the content of his messages, it was determined that the posts were potentially in breach of the UK legislation.
He was charged in May 2020, but released on bail with the conditions to desist from making threatening, abusive, and insulting comments against any ethnic groups posts on social media.
However, officers re-arrested Shoyemi in October 2020 after making further offending posts while on bail.
Commenting on the development, 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.
“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.”