Abiola Akerele: Two detained for killing man from knife crime film

Abiola Akerele featured in the 2007 documentary On A Knife Edge

Two men have been detained for killing a former travel agent who once featured in a BBC documentary about knife crime.

Abiola Akerele, 28, who was also a rapper known as Nayta, was stabbed outside his home in East Ham, east London, in December 2020.

Junaid Sulaiman, 22, and Rayhan Ali, 19, from east London, were previously found guilty of manslaughter.

Sulaiman was jailed for nine years, while Ali was sentenced to four years in a young offenders institution.

At the Old Bailey sentencing hearing, both were also ordered to serve an extended licence period of two years on their release.

Mr Akerele appeared in the BBC Panorama gang violence documentary, On A Knife Edge, in 2007 when he was a teenager.

In the film he described witnessing the build-up to a killing, telling Jeremy Vine: "Don't wanna get myself in, cos once you're in it's hard to get out. When you join a clique, you gain their enemies as well."

Mr Akerele was interviewed by Jeremy Vine

During the men's trial, prosecutor Alexandra Healy QC told the Old Bailey that they had gone to the victim's home having arranged to buy cannabis.

Jurors heard there was a commotion and shouts, as hooded males with their faces covered kicked, punched and stabbed Mr Akerele as he crouched down to protect himself.

The defendants claimed to have acted in self-defence.

The court heard Mr Akerele began selling cannabis after being laid off during the pandemic.

In a victim impact statement read out to the court, Abimbola Akerele paid tribute to her son, saying: "Abiola did not deserve what happened to him, no-one does."

Addressing the defendants, she went on: "I want you to know the consequences of your actions that day. You have altered my life, all our lives. You have caused us so much pain and sorrow.

"You have cut us deep."

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