British-Nigerian convict escapes UK following accidental prison release

A British-Nigerian man, Ifedayo Adeyeye, who was serving a prison sentence in the United Kingdom for abducting his son, has escaped the country after being mistakenly released from jail.

During a court session on Monday, it was revealed that staff at HMP Pentonville failed to inform the police about Adeyeye’s accidental release, allowing him a three-day advantage before Scotland Yard launched a manhunt.

According to The Telegraph UK, a judge previously ruled in June that Adeyeye had abducted his son, Laurys, from his mother, Claire N’Djosse, in France and transported him to Nigeria via the UK. Laurys was born in France and had always lived with his mother until the abduction on July 27, 2024—the first time he had spent the night with his father.

After Adeyeye failed to return Laurys as ordered by a UK court, he was arrested upon his return to the country and jailed for six months in January for contempt of court. On April 20, he received an additional 12-month sentence for further failing to facilitate his son’s return to his mother.

However, just one day after his new sentence, Adeyeye was reportedly released by mistake because the updated sentencing details were not relayed to the officers in charge of his release. The oversight was only made public during a May 1 court hearing, where officials criticised the prison’s alarming lack of urgency.

The presiding judge stated that the incident could likely have been prevented if police had been notified immediately, emphasising, The public is entitled to expect far better than this.

At the latest hearing, the court heard that Adeyeye may have fled to Spain soon after his release and was believed to have left the UK on April 22.

A Metropolitan Police representative told the court, We recognise both the seriousness of this matter and how traumatic the present situation must be for both Ms N’Djosse and her son. We are pursuing all reasonable lines of enquiry to locate and arrest Adeyeye and will continue to do so diligently and expeditiously.

The Telegraph UK also reported that this case is part of a broader trend of prison errors, with Ministry of Justice records indicating that 179 inmates were mistakenly released between April 2025 and March 2026.

A similar incident occurred in November last year, when Ola Abimbola, a Nigerian-born convict serving a 21-year sentence for kidnapping, walked out of HMP Ford a month after being transferred there. Sussex Police reported ongoing efforts to locate him, though his whereabouts remain unknown.