A London court has found a Nigerian-born drill rapper, Lekan Akinsoji, guilty of murdering a rival gang member, 21-year-old Ahmed Deen-Jah, in a violent attack that occurred eight years ago.
Akinsoji, 27, who lived in Forest Gate, East London, was convicted alongside his accomplice, Sundjata Keita, at the Old Bailey on Thursday.
The pair now face life imprisonment for the fatal stabbing, which prosecutors said was a premeditated gang assault.
According to The Impartial Reporter, the defendants, wearing balaclavas, attacked Deen-Jah near Custom House Station on April 2, 2017.
Ten days before the killing, Akinsoji had appeared in a drill music video titled Armed and Ready, where he bragged about evading police arrest with the lyrics, “No face, no case, no evvy (evidence).”
During the fatal encounter, Deen-Jah had reportedly stopped at a shop, BJ Wines, to buy a lighter when two masked men dressed in black emerged from a stolen Mercedes and chased him inside. In the struggle that followed, he was stabbed in the heart.
The attackers fled the scene before emergency services arrived, and Deen-Jah was later pronounced dead, just 130 metres from his home.
Prosecutor Anthony Orchard KC told the court that the killing was not random but a planned “ride-out” — a term used to describe a targeted invasion of rival gang territory.
“This was not a spontaneous act of violence but an organised attack arising from an ongoing feud between two East London gangs,” Orchard said.
He explained that Deen-Jah was affiliated with the Custom House gang, while Akinsoji admitted membership in the rival Woodgrange group. Keita denied being involved in any gang activity.
Both men were captured on CCTV, and despite denying involvement in the killing, they were found guilty by a majority verdict of 10 to 2.
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Judge Anthony Leonard KC ordered that Akinsoji and Keita remain in custody ahead of sentencing, which is scheduled for October 24.
