A British-Nigerian man, Ifedayo Adeyeye, jailed in the United Kingdom over the abduction of his son, has reportedly fled the country after prison authorities mistakenly released him from custody.
The development emerged during a court hearing on Monday, where it was disclosed that officials at HMP Pentonville failed to alert the police immediately after Adeyeye’s accidental release, giving him a three-day window before a nationwide manhunt was launched by the Metropolitan Police.
According to The Telegraph UK, Adeyeye had earlier been found guilty of abducting his son, Laurys, from the child’s mother, Claire N’Djosse, in France and taking him to Nigeria through the UK.
The court heard that the boy, who was born in France and had lived with his mother since birth, spent the night of July 27, 2024, with his father for the first time before the incident occurred.
Adeyeye was subsequently arrested upon returning to the UK after allegedly failing to comply with a court order directing him to return the child to his mother.
He was initially sentenced to six months imprisonment in January for contempt of court and later received an additional 12-month jail term on April 20 for again refusing to facilitate the child’s return.
However, the court heard that he was mistakenly released from prison the following day after details of the fresh sentence were not properly communicated to prison officers responsible for processing his detention.
At an earlier hearing on May 1, the court reportedly criticised prison officials over what it described as an “alarming lack of urgency” in handling the error.
The judge noted that prompt action could have prevented Adeyeye’s escape, saying the public deserved a higher level of accountability from prison authorities.
During Monday’s proceedings, the court was informed that Adeyeye was believed to have fled to Spain shortly after his release and may have left the UK on April 22.
In a statement presented before the court, the Metropolitan Police said it recognised the seriousness of the case and the emotional trauma faced by the child and his mother.
“We are using all available powers to pursue every reasonable line of inquiry to locate and arrest him,” the police stated.
The report added that the incident forms part of a wider pattern of prison release errors in the UK, with official figures from the Ministry of Justice indicating that 179 inmates were mistakenly released between April 2025 and March 2026.
The case also comes months after another Nigerian-born convict, Ola Abimbola, reportedly escaped from HMP Ford in October 2025 while serving a 21-year sentence for kidnapping.
