Terrorism: U.S. court jails Yoruba-born Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi over links with Islamic terrorists

U.S. court jails Yoruba-born Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi over links with Islamic terrorists

A 35-year-old Yoruba man, who once wrote rap lyrics for Al-Qaeda in Yemen, has been sentenced to 22 years in a U.S. prison. Babafemi, Wednesday pleaded guilty to terror charges. 

Babafemi, who was extradited to New York from Nigeria, was jailed by Judge John Gleeson in a US federal court in Brooklyn, prosecutors announced.

He was originally indicted in the United States on four counts but pleaded guilty in April 2014 to providing and conspiring to provide support to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

He traveled to Yemen after “underwear bomber” and fellow Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a US airliner on Christmas Day 2009 with explosives stuffed down his pants.

Babafemi made two trips to Yemen from Nigeria between January 2010 and August 2011 to train with leaders of AQAP in the use of weapons and inspiring “lone-wolf” style attacks overseas.

He helped with their English-language media operations, including online magazine Inspire, in which he was photographed holding an AK-47, according to court documents.

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He wrote rap lyrics on behalf of AQAP, hoping to extend its appeal to young Westerners, and was given nearly $9,000 in cash to recruit other English speakers from Nigeria before he was arrested, then extradited to the United States.

Before now it has been believed that only northern Nigerian Muslims have the proclivity to join Islamic terror groups. This confirms that there is increasing radicalization of Yoruba young men and women to commit terrorists acts.