A 45-year-old Nigerian man, Adeyinka Shoyemi, has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison by a court in the United Kingdom for stoking racial violence in Nigeria via his posts on social media.
Shoyemi’s sentence was announced on Thursday March 31, 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.
The Met Police started investigating the convict in March 2019 following complaints from the members of the public regarding his online activities.
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.
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.”
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 searching.
He was later released on bail as detectives combed his seized devices in search of evidence. He was charged on May 2020.
He was later released on bail with the conditions to desist from making threatening, abusive, and insulting against any ethnic groups posts on social media.
However, officers re-arrested Shoyemi in October 2020 after making further offending posts while on bail.
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