A 19-year-old Nigerian university student in the United Kingdom, Oluwatobiloba Akinrinola, has been sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment by Leicester Crown Court after being convicted of his role in a violent robbery, blackmail, and humiliation plot targeting partygoers.
Akinrinola, a student at Leicester University residing at Slippers Place, London, was sentenced alongside 20-year-old ringleader Richile Vangu, who received an 11-year prison term with an additional three-year extended licence period.
Together, the duo handed down a combined 18 years in jail for a series of planned attacks that prosecutors described as systematic torture designed for social media shock value.
Horror at student gathering
Court documents revealed that the offences began on November 21, 2025, during a private party in North Kilworth, Leicestershire.
According to prosecutors, at least eight men were cornered in a bedroom, threatened with a large “zombie-style knife,” and stripped of high-end designer items. Vangu, operating under the alias “Trixta,” demanded that each victim transfer £1,000 electronically under the threat of being stabbed.
The ordeal escalated when victims were taken to student accommodation on Bath Lane in Leicester. There, Akinrinola forced victims to perform physical exercises, including star jumps and high knees, while repeatedly punching them.
Vangu further subjected the victims to severe degradation—whipping them with belts, shooting them with BB guns, waxing their faces, and threatening to cut off their hair. The acts were recorded on mobile phones and subsequently posted on TikTok.
Presiding Judge Steven Evans described the incidents as a campaign of torture displaying a “complete absence of empathy,” noting that while Akinrinola acted subserviently to Vangu, he played an essential execution role in the multi-count offences.
Parents plead innocence over ‘guilt by association’
The conviction comes despite passionate public appeals from Akinrinola’s parents, Aderinkola and Olayinka Akinrinola, who maintain that their son was wrongfully convicted based purely on circumstantial association.
In a public statement issued prior to sentencing, his parents insisted that Akinrinola only met Vangu after entering Leicester University in September 2025 and was an innocent bystander during the party.
“Our son is innocent of the charges against him. The police argument against him is that he is guilty by association with the prime suspect,” his parents stated, emphasising that no stolen items or money transfers were traced to his accounts, and that he voluntarily approached police to clear his name.
Verdict breakdown
Following trial proceedings, the jury found Akinrinola guilty of nine counts of blackmail, four counts of robbery, and two counts of actual bodily harm, while acquitting him of one count of blackmail.
Vangu was convicted of four counts of robbery, 10 counts of blackmail, and one count of actual bodily harm. Two co-defendants, Benjamin Osadolor and Ayomide Ibraheem, were acquitted of all charges.
