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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Crime & Justice

My son wrongly accused, UK-based woman faults jury

From The Punch · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified In the courts
  • A Nigerian mother, Mrs. Olayinka Akinrinola, claims her 18-year-old son was wrongly accused and convicted of robbery and blackmail in the UK.
  • Her son, Oluwatobiloba Akinrinola, was found guilty of multiple charges, including robbery and blackmail, stemming from incidents in November 2025.
  • The mother argues her son is a victim of association and racial profiling, pointing to a lack of evidence, such as stolen items or financial transactions, found in his possession.

Mrs. Olayinka Akinrinola, a UK-based Nigerian woman, is contesting the jury's verdict that found her 18-year-old son, Oluwatobiloba Akinrinola, guilty of robbery and blackmail. The court session on Friday saw the jury deliver a guilty verdict on six counts of blackmail and four counts of robbery in North Kilworth, along with three counts of blackmail and two counts of actual bodily harm (ABH) in Bath Lane.

My son is innocent. He is a victim of association and he is being profiled by the police because he is black.

— Mrs. Olayinka AkinrinolaExpressing her belief in her son's innocence and alleging racial profiling.

British media reported Oluwatobiloba's arrest and charges for nine counts of robbery, linked to a series of violent incidents beginning November 21, 2025. One incident involved a group of men breaking into a property on Bath Lane, where a male victim was assaulted with a belt. The media also identified Oluwatobiloba's accomplice as 19-year-old Richile Vagnu, with another individual, Ayomide Ibraheem, apprehended in December 2025 in connection with the robberies.

However, Mrs. Akinrinola maintains her son's innocence, asserting he was not present during the incidents. She believes Oluwatobiloba is a victim of association and is being unfairly profiled by the police due to his race. She highlighted that none of the stolen items, described as jackets and footwear, were found with her son after his apartment was searched. Furthermore, she noted that while police found evidence of money transfers to Vagnu and Ayomide's accounts, no such transactions were found in Oluwatobiloba's bank records.

The robbery victims said they were robbed of their jackets and footwear, and none of the items was found with my son, Oluwatobiloba Akinrinola, after police searched his apartment.

— Mrs. Olayinka AkinrinolaHighlighting a lack of physical evidence linking her son to the stolen items.

The sentencing for Oluwatobiloba Akinrinola is scheduled for July 17. His mother's strong defense suggests a potential appeal or further legal challenge against the conviction.

The police said they found evidence that money was transferred to the accounts of the other suspects, Vagnu and Ayomide, by the victims, but no evidence of such was found in my son’s bank account records.

— Mrs. Olayinka AkinrinolaContrasting the evidence found against other suspects with the lack of financial evidence against her son.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by The Punch. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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