A British-Nigerian man, Ifedayo Adedapo Kolawoe Adeyeye, is currently on the run after he was mistakenly released from a prison in the United Kingdom despite having additional jail time to serve.
Adeyeye had been serving a six-month sentence at HMP Pentonville in London for abducting his five-year-old son, Laurys. However, he was wrongly freed on April 21, 2026, even though a separate 12-month sentence had just been handed to him a day earlier and he was also facing extradition to France.
Authorities later admitted that the second sentence, issued on April 20 for further contempt of court, was not properly recorded in the prison system, leading to the error. The mistake went unnoticed for two days, and it was only on April 23 that an alert was issued to prevent him from leaving the UK.
The case stems from a 2024 incident when a High Court in the UK found that Adeyeye had unlawfully taken his son, Laurys N’Djosse Adeyeye, from his mother in France and brought him to Nigeria. The court described the situation as one of the most serious forms of child abduction.
The child’s mother, Claire N’Djosse, has reportedly not seen her son in nearly two years.
Adeyeye was first jailed in January 2026 for failing to comply with a court order to return the child. On April 20, he received an additional 12-month sentence for further violations, but the failure to log this sentence resulted in his erroneous release the following day.
Lawyers representing the child’s mother told the court that there was a two-day delay before authorities acted, a lapse that has drawn sharp criticism from the judge overseeing the case.
Condemning the situation, the judge described the delay as an “alarming lack of urgency” and said the state had failed in its duty. He also questioned whether law enforcement fully understood the seriousness of the case.
In an effort to locate Adeyeye and the child, the court lifted reporting restrictions, allowing their identities to be made public. The judge warned that Adeyeye poses a serious risk to the child’s safety and well-being, describing him as dishonest and a threat.
He stressed that keeping Adeyeye in custody may be the only realistic chance of reuniting the boy with his mother.
Police confirmed they were alerted on April 24 and have since launched urgent efforts to track him down and return him to custody.
