A notorious gang ‘general’ who poses a ‘serious threat to the public’ could be back on Britain’s streets within months because ministers have failed to have him deported.Joland Giwa, whose street name is Dexter, led a campaign of terror on the streets of Croydon, South London, and is ready ‘at any time to use knives and weapons’, police say.
He was thought to be from Nigeria or Sierra Leone, but both countries refuse to accept he is one of theirs and linguists have now said he has a strong London accent, despite finding that he used English spoken in Nigeria.
In a gangster-style YouTube video, he is seen boasting about having stabbed a man ‘in the f****** head’ and threatening to attack other gangs who intrude on his territory.
He has been held since 2009 when he finished a jail sentence, but immigration officials have failed to secure him a passport because of the two African countries’ refusal
Yesterday a judge ruled that immigration officials had three months to get him travel documents and if they failed Giwa should be released.
In court papers seen by the Daily Telegraph, it was found that he had ‘complicated’ speech patterns and ‘south London English’.
Critics said the ‘ridiculous’ case demonstrated Britain’s powerlessness to remove foreign criminals living here illegally. Tory MP Douglas Carswell said: ‘A thug on the streets of south London who is terrorising innocent Londoners and who is not even in the country legally should be removed.’
Giwa, 24, is the self-proclaimed ‘general’ in charge of the Don’t Say Nothing gang – known as DSN – with a string of convictions for theft and robbery.
In 2007, the DSN gang was behind a surge in violence on the streets of Croydon which saw stabbings, shootings and murder, police say. Officers linked Giwa to at least 99 incidents of criminal or anti-social behaviour.
