Leicestershire Police
A Nigerian student living in the UK has been jailed alongside an accomplice for a combined 18 years, after the pair terrorised partygoers in a robbery and blackmail plot that they filmed for TikTok.
Oluwatobiloba Akinrinola, 19, described in reports as a Nigerian student based in the United Kingdom, was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment at Leicester Crown Court on Monday. His co-defendant, 20-year-old Richile Vangu, received an 11-year jail term plus a three-year extended licence period. Judge Steven Evans, sentencing the pair, said Akinrinola had acted “subservient” to Vangu but had nonetheless played “an essential part” in the offending.
The court heard the scheme was orchestrated by Vangu, who Judge Evans said had planned the robbery and “recruited” a group of men, including Akinrinola, to carry it out. Their target was a party in North Kilworth, Leicestershire, on 21 November 2025 that had been advertised on Snapchat as open to all. At least eight men were forced into a bedroom and threatened with a large “zombie-style knife” while designer clothing and an iPhone were stolen.
Vangu, who used the name Trixta on TikTok and introduced himself, according to the judge, “like a villain from the movies”, then demanded each victim transfer him £1,000, threatening to stab anyone who refused. He forced the group to repeatedly perform a TikTok dance while photographing their student ID cards to find out where they lived.
Victims who failed to pay were ordered to a student property on Bath Lane in Leicester later that day. There, Akinrinola made some of them carry out star jumps and high knees before punching them repeatedly. Vangu went further still, whipping victims with a belt, firing a BB gun at their heads, waxing their faces and threatening to cut off their dreadlocks if they did not pay up.
Both attacks were filmed, with Vangu uploading footage from the party and the student flat to TikTok, the same platform on which he had built his online identity. Detective Constable Adam Battley, who led the investigation, said Vangu had clearly seen himself as the ringleader throughout and believed he was untouchable by the law.
Judge Evans said the two men had “tortured” and “humiliated” their victims, and was especially critical of Vangu, citing a “complete absence of empathy” and noting he had laughed while evidence was shown to the jury at trial. A Probation Service assessment went further, finding that Vangu had “enjoyed humiliating and targeting” those he attacked.
Following the trial, Vangu, of Bowes Road, London, was convicted of four counts of robbery, ten counts of blackmail and one count of actual bodily harm, having already pleaded guilty to a separate ABH charge at an earlier hearing. Akinrinola, of Slippers Place, London, was convicted of nine counts of blackmail, four counts of robbery and two counts of actual bodily harm, and cleared of one further blackmail count.
Two other men investigated over the incident, Benjamin Osadolor, 19, of Northampton, and Ayomide Ibraheem, 19, of London, were both acquitted on all charges.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah