Notorious Gang Leader In A London Jail Has Been Denied Nigerian Nationality To Enable His Deportation To Nigeria

 

 

A notorious gang leader who has been in jail since 2009 in London has been denied Nigerian Nationality by the Nigerian High Commission who said he isn't a Nigerian and not eligible for a Nigerian passport that would enhance his deportation back to Nigeria even though he speaks a Nigerian dialect.According to dailymail, a notorious gang ‘general’ who poses a ‘serious threat to the public’ could be back on Britain’s streets within months because ministers have failed to have him deported.

 
Joland Giwa, whose street name is Dexter, led a campaign of terror on the streets of Croydon, South London, and is ready ‘at any time to use knives and weapons’, police say. 

In a gangster-style YouTube video, he is seen boasting about having stabbed a man ‘in the f****** head’ and threatening to attack other gangs who intrude on his territory.He has been held since 2009 when he finished a jail sentence, but immigration officials have failed to secure him a passport, as two different African countries, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, both refuse to accept he is one of theirs. 

Yesterday a judge ruled that immigration officials had three months to get him travel documents and if they failed Giwa should be released. 

Critics said the ‘ridiculous’ case demonstrated Britain’s powerlessness to remove foreign criminals living here illegally. Tory MP Douglas Carswell said: ‘A thug on the streets of south London who is terrorising innocent Londoners and who is not even in the country legally should be removed.’ 

Giwa, 24, is the self-proclaimed ‘general’ in charge of the Don’t Say Nothing gang – known as DSN – with a string of convictions for theft and robbery. 

In 2007, the DSN gang was behind a surge in violence on the streets of Croydon which saw stabbings, shootings and murder, police say. Officers linked Giwa to at least 99 incidents of criminal or anti-social behaviour. 

One former officer told Giwa’s immigration hearing he has a ‘clear propensity for violence’ and poses a ‘serious threat to the public’. Darin Birmingham, a former police sergeant, said Giwa had no fear of ‘confrontation and violence’ and was ready at any time to use knives and other weapons. But he would also maintain a façade of respectfulness towards police officers.

In a clip uploaded to YouTube, he is seen shouting a string of obscenities and threats at the camera, stating: ‘I am the f****** general.’ He adds: ‘I have shanked [stabbed] a man in the f****** head.’ The video prompted a spate of gang violence against rival groups Terror Zone from Mitcham and a Thornton Heath gang called Shine My Nine. Giwa landed at Heathrow aged 10 on a flight from Nigeria with his twin brother but no parent or guardian, in 1999.  

He had no identity documents and claimed asylum on the spot, telling officials he was from Sierra Leone and his parents were killed in the civil war in that country. He claimed a stranger had rescued him and his brother and put them on a plane. His asylum claim was refused but he was given permission to stay for four years, before permanent leave was granted in 2005.  

By then he already had a conviction for handling stolen goods, and over the next four years he committed a string of robberies and thefts which resulted in a 27-month jail term in February 2009. Time served meant he was due for release later that year. At the time, he posted a picture on Facebook of himself in his cell, taken on a smuggled mobile phone. An internet post said he would be ‘touching road real soon’.

But instead he was held in an immigration centre as officials tried to kick him out of the UK. In March 2011 he was transferred to high security Belmarsh prison after intelligence suggested he was involved in smuggling drugs into the detention centre. 

His brother Make was jailed for trying to smuggle heroin and sim cards in to Belmarsh last year. Meanwhile, both Nigeria and Sierra Leone have refused to recognise him as a national of their country or to give him a passport.  

After interviewing him in 2010 the Sierra Leone High Commission said the ‘tribe he mentioned is not a Sierra Leone tribe’ – and claimed he was Nigerian. But the Nigerian High Commission says he isn’t Nigerian. In July this year a fresh approach was made to Sierra Leone to get him a passport. A meeting with an immigration official from the country is due to take place this week.  
At the High Court, Giwa’s lawyer said his detention was no longer reasonable, but the Home Office insisted there was still a ‘realistic prospect of removal’ to Sierra Leone. Judge John Keyser QC, said the Home Office was ‘entirely justified in coming to the view that the claimant presents a very significant risk both of absconding and re-offending’ and that he presents a ‘serious risk of violence’. But he said the length of his detention – 53 months – had been ‘pushed to the limit of what is capable of being considered reasonable’, and set a deadline of three months before Giwa should be let out.  

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We are pleased with the court’s decision to dismiss Joland Giwa’s legal challenge against his detention. ‘Giwa is a dangerous individual and he remains in immigration detention while work continues to remove him from the UK.’