Nigerians jailed in UK, US

Two Nigerians have been sentenced to prison terms in separate criminal cases in the United Kingdom and the United States involving murder and fraud-related offences.

In the UK, a London court sentenced 36-year-old Nigerian national, Fawaz Abdulkareem, to life imprisonment for the murder of 32-year-old Daniel Manuel following a dispute at a flat in Vauxhall.

Abdulkareem was convicted of murder and possession of a bladed article and was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court on June 5. The court ordered that he serve a minimum of 17 years before becoming eligible for parole.

According to the Metropolitan Police, the fatal incident occurred on July 5, 2025, at a residential building on Bondway. Officers responded to reports of a stabbing in the early hours of the morning and found Manuel with severe injuries in the lobby of the apartment complex.

Despite efforts by police officers, paramedics and medical personnel to save him, Manuel was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators established that both men had spent the evening with friends before returning to Abdulkareem’s apartment. Prosecutors told the court that an argument later erupted between the pair, culminating in the fatal stabbing.

Police arrested Abdulkareem at the scene and charged him the following day. During investigations, detectives recovered the knife believed to have been used in the attack after it had been thrown from an upper floor of the building.

Following a trial, a jury found him guilty of murder and possession of a bladed article.

Detective Inspector Luke Hampton, who led the investigation, described the conviction as the result of extensive police work and expressed sympathy for the victim’s family.

“Our thoughts remain with Daniel’s family, and we hope this sentence provides them with some measure of comfort,” Hampton said.

In a victim impact statement read in court, Manuel’s wife, Zulal, described her late husband as a central figure in her life and spoke of the devastating effect of his death on the family.

Meanwhile, in the United States, a Nigerian resident of Pennsylvania, Adepoju Babatunde Salako, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud connected to a scheme targeting Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend programme.

Court documents showed that Salako fraudulently obtained personal information belonging to several Alaska residents and used the details to submit seven fake applications for dividend payments between January and February 2022.

Investigators said he created email accounts linked to the victims and gained access to their myAlaska online accounts, where he altered contact information and banking details in an attempt to divert payments to accounts under his control.

Authorities further revealed that Salako used a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to conceal his location and make the applications appear as though they originated from Alaska. However, investigators later traced some of the online activity to Philadelphia.

The Alaska Department of Revenue detected the fraudulent applications and blocked them before any payments could be made. Officials estimated that the scheme could have resulted in losses of nearly $23,000.

Salako pleaded guilty to seven counts of wire fraud. The sentence will run concurrently with an earlier prison term of six-and-a-half years imposed in Colorado for offences involving COVID-19 relief fraud and international money laundering, which included restitution amounting to $2.5 million.

Commenting on the case, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman praised investigators for preventing the fraud.

“Mr. Salako spent considerable time planning and perpetrating his scheme to defraud the Alaska PFD. Thanks to the great work of the Alaska Department of Revenue and FBI, he didn’t succeed; but even attempting to defraud the PFD will not be tolerated and could result in federal prison,” Heyman said.

The two convictions underscore ongoing efforts by law enforcement authorities in both countries to combat violent crime and financial fraud.