UK Drill Rapper CB, whose real name is Lekan Akinsoji and his accomplice Sundjata Keita (AKA SK), both aged 27 and from Forest Gate, were found guilty of murdering 21-year-old Ahmed Deen-Jah.
Mr Deen-Jah encountered his adversaries near an alleyway after buying a lighter in an Off License.
We was then chased by the pair into BJ Food & Wines and stabbed near Custom House station on the afternoon of 2 April 2017.
Judge Anthony Leonard KC jailed the pair for life, with a minimum term of 28 years for Akinsoji and 22 years for Keita.
Akinsoji who goes by the name CB in music and is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence for firearm-related charges, including possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm (GBH) in 2018.
He would have been eligible to be for a parole hearing in 2031 if he wasn’t convicted of this murder.
Previously, the court heard how they had donned black clothes, balaclavas and gloves for the “gang ride-out” where they got out of a stolen black Mercedes car and chased the victim, who ran into BJ Wines off licence for before fatally stabbing him.
On Friday, Mr Deen-Jah’s family attended Akinsoji and Keita’s Old Bailey sentencing and described how they were also grieving for his younger brother Junior, who was killed in 2021.
Their father Abubakar Jah said he came to live in the UK from Sierra Leone in 1995 in hopes for a better life, only for those dreams to be shattered when his eldest son was murdered.
He said: “Four years after this, having had no justice in Ahmed’s case, my younger son Junior was also murdered in April 2021, again this was in close proximity to where Ahmed was murdered.”
He said losing both of his sons “has caused the most unbearable hurt and pain to me and my family. It is unexplainable.”
Their mother Hawa Deen Conteh said the family lives were altered forever by the “senseless act of violence” that led to Mr Deen-Jah’s death.
Having sat through two murder trials, she said the grief was “indescribable”.
She said: “In seeking justice, we pray the court recognises the depth of our loss and the enduring and devastating impact this tragedy has had on our family.
“We hope no other family has to experience the heartache and suffering that we have endured.”
