MY DETENTION BY THE UK GOVERNMENT AN ASSAULT ON FREE SPEECH

Adeyinka Shoyemi popularly known as Adeyinka Grandson is a Yoruba nationalist who has been at the forefront of the exposure of the historical political atrocities perpetrated in Nigeria.

He is presently in detention in London.My unfair detention, which began on the 30th November 2021 and expected to end by February 2024, was an assault on free speech! In my early age, I lived in Yorubaland from birth until the age of 29, an important period of youthfulness in my life. I was witty, brash, hot headed, humble and lovable all at the same time, no one could doubt my determination to change the course of history through the Young Yoruba for Freedom (YYF), a conservative youth movement I founded at 19 years of age. But not once was I ever arrested by the Police or brought before any court of law throughout my stay in Yorubaland. The contrast is the case in England.

As a Yoruba citizen, black, and living in London, the capital of England, as well as the United Kingdom, the government of the United Kingdom detained me in prison as a political prisoner because of my nationalist beliefs.

THE ISSUES:

I was initially arrested on the 6 August 2019 in relation to allegations of ‘terrorism’ and stirring up ‘racial hatred’, through my YouTube Channel. A solicitor was subsequently instructed to act on my behalf and appointed a Barrister, to represent me with regard to the criminal proceedings of stirring up racial hatred against the Ibo and Fulani peoples of Nigeria as brought against me by the Westminster government in England. I was subsequently re-arrested and pronounced guilty in November 2021 and hurriedly sentenced to a term of four years and six months.On the 31st of March, 2022, the verdict, after a prolonged and careful investigation by our legal team was found to be totally unfair and unjust. We will appeal thedecision to the Court of Appeal and be vindicated. The reasons why I am being persecuted for my political beliefs will be explained below.

Firstly, Please note that my ex-wife was behind my arrest on the allegation of terrorism and stirring up racial hatred. She has done this to protect the immigration papers of her new husband, who has been granted a stay in the United Kingdom on the basis of my children's British citizenship. Her actions and intentions have impacted on my rights as the biological fatherof my children to renew my stay in the United Kingdom and have prompted me to apply for a contact order in the Family Court. I want to believe this my decision of application for a contact order after had made her to file an allegation of terrorism and racial hatred against me. Having arrested me alleged terrorism and stirring up racial hatred and considered all the information I have provided on my YouTube channel on the suppression and subjugation of the Yoruba Nation by the government of England, through its proxies, the Fulani and the Ibo, the Police in England were worried that the concerns I have raised could cause a rebellion against the English Establishment and interests in Yorubaland, Nigeria.

Furthermore, I had complained and posited that the English government:

1.Encouraged the coalition government of the Ibo and Fulani in 1959 in order to control theYoruba's waterways, seaports, crude oil, political economy as well as the legitimate use of the monopoly of violence, guns, through the control of themilitary, police immigration, customs and the prison services in Nigeria, against the Yoruba in Nigeria.

2.Supported the Ibo and Fulani to have the Yoruba political leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo jailedfor 10 years in 1963 on the false allegation of treason.

3.Encouraged the Ibo and Fulani military officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces to suspend theregional system of government negotiated at independence and its replacement with the current ‘unitary presidential system’ in 1966 after the Ibo had assasinated Ladoke Akintola in January 1966 who was the second Premier of the Western Region of Nigeria, Yorubaland and the Fulani had killed Adekunle Fajuyi, in July 1966 who was the first military Premier of Yorubaland.

4.Supported the Ibo and the Fulani's annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections wonby Chief M. K. O. Abiola on the grounds that Abiola had asked the government in England to pay reparation for the enslavement and colonization of the Yoruba for 100 years.

5.Encouraged the arrest and imprisonment of Chief M.K.O. Abiola by the Fulani in 1994.6.Failed to condemn the Fulani for the assassination of Chief M.K.O. Abiola's wife, KudiratAbiola in 1996.

7.Agreed in principle to the assassination of Chief M.K.O. Abiola by the Fulani in 1998.8.Organized the #EndSARS protest in 2020 with the use of the Ibo members of IPOB under thecontrol of the English Intelligence Service, the MI6 agents to try to assassinate Bola Ahmed Tinubu in order to stop him from becoming the President of Nigeria in 2023.

All these complaints led to the criminal proceedings of the allegation of stirring up ‘Racial Hatred’ against the lbo and Fulani that were brought against me by the government in England.However, there is nothing in the public course of actions the Young Yoruba for Freedom (YYF) that encourages racial hatred or terrorism.

The campaign of the YYF is to raise awareness of the impact that the political instability Nigeria has on people's mental health, physical well-being and inter-ethnic relationships, to advocate the idea of a return to the Parliamentary System of Government, and to promote a peaceful dissolution of Nigeria with the intervention of the good people of the United States of America.

As a movement, we have always highlighted the suppression and subjugation of the Yoruba people in Nigeria by the Ibo and Fulani people who have the military support of the self-serving career politicians in England.I am, therefore, innocent of the charges of stirring up racial hatred against the Ibo and Fulani people of Nigeria as alleged by the government in England.

THE OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE:

My YouTube Channel, I published 520 videos of my political speeches and campaign trail between 2007 and 6 August 2019 before my arrest. The police indicted me with only four of these videos as stirring up ‘racial hatred’ against the Ibo and Fulani people.

The four videos are:

1.YYF First Public Course of Action, published in July 2017. 2.Currency for the Yoruba Liberation, published in 2018. 3.The Last Chance, Published in 2018. 4.Attacks on Yoruba in Yorubaland, Published in February 2019.However, the last three videos have been archived from my YouTube Channel and were no longer in public for more than a year and six months at the time of my arrest.

Nevertheless, the judge ignored my complaints that the videos that were not publicly available should not form part of the indictment videos.

The police also indicted me with two Facebook posts made in 2018 by other administrators of our Facebook page. Again, the Judge allowed these posts to form part of the indictments against me, when I am not the person who had posted them. These six charges were brought against me by the government in England. Four days to the start of my trial in November 2021, the police indicted me with yet another video, but edited it into two videos. This video was on the ultimatum I gave to the Ibo to leave Yorubaland in October 2020 over their destruction of Lagos State on the directive of Nnamdi Kanu during the #EndSARS Protest. Again, the judge accepted the new video against my objection.

During the trial, the judge allowed the prosecution counsel to play all its six videos and two Facebook posts to the jury as well as other videos and article that were never part of the charges. However, the Judge did not allow my own counsel to play any of the three videos I had wanted to play to the jury, including the video of my arrest where I explained to the MI5 agents that I was not a terrorist and wasn’t stirring up racial hatred against the Ibo and Fulani, and two other videos of the Ibo people destroying properties in Lagos, Yorubaland and had killed some Yoruba people in the process which had prompted me to make some of the videos the police had indicted me with.In addition, the judge directed me not to mention to the jury the involvement of my ex-wife in the allegation of terrorism and racial hatred against me. Furthermore, the five witnesses in America, Germany and England who had seen my videos on YouTube and willing to give evidence in court to certify that I amnot stirring up racial hatred against the Ibo and Fulani people of Nigeria, were not allowed to provide evidence.Finally, the Jury, after two days of deliberation, without a verdict, asked the judge one fundamental question to help them reach a verdict.The question was: Is Nigeria in a state of war?The jury members were of the opinion that if Nigeria is in a state of war, then the videos of Adeyinka Grandson, are justified. However, if Nigeria is peaceful as the United Kingdom, then the videos of Adeyinka Grandson, are not justified.

The Prosecution Counsel, who is an English, says that the political situation in Nigeria should not be considered by the jury. On my part, I stated that my videos were made because of the political situation in Nigeria whichis akin to astate of war in which the Boko Haram insurgency group takes over communities across the North-East of Nigeria; the Fulani militia men from across the West African countries take over communities across the North-West of Nigeria; there is a war between the Fulani herdsmen who are foreigners in Nigeria and indigenous farmers in the North-Central of Nigeria; the Ibo members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the South-East of Nigeria whom Nnamdi Kanu leads are at war with the armed forces of Nigeria(police and the military); there is militancy in the oil rich South-South region of Nigeria, and the Yoruba supporters of the ‘Oduduwa Republic’ have taken to street protests across the southwest of Nigeria. Based on these, Nigeria is therefore in a state of war. However, the judge directed the jury not to consider the political situation of Nigeria, which formed the basis of my YouTube videos.All of the above manipulations added to my conviction where it was alleged that I was stirring up ‘racial hatred’ against the Ibo and Fulani people of Nigeria. I never pleaded guilty.