Nigerian Woman Declared Dead in 2019 Appears in Court to Reclaim £350K Estate Stolen by Scammer

A Nigerian woman who was wrongly declared dead in February 2019 has taken a fraudster to court after he attempted to seize her £350,000 home in London.

The woman, June Ashimola, appeared before High Court Judge John Linwood to confirm that she is very much alive. She explained that when her death was falsely declared, she had been the victim of a scam.

The court heard that Ms. Ashimola brought the case after learning that a Power of Attorney over her estate—mainly consisting of her London home—had been granted to associates of a convicted fraudster, Tony Ashikodi.

The issue reportedly began when Ms. Ashimola moved from Nigeria to London in 2018 and had not returned since. Then, in October 2022, Power of Attorney over her estate was granted to Ruth Samuel and a man named Bakare Lasisi, who claimed to have married her in 1993.

However, after investigating the case, the court discovered that Ms. Ashimola had been the victim of fraud—and that Bakare Lasisi never even existed.

The fraudsters had also presented a fake death certificate, falsely claiming that Ms. Ashimola had died in Nigeria in 2019 without leaving a will. At one point, it was even argued that any sightings of Ms. Ashimola were simply someone impersonating her since she had supposedly passed away in 2018.

In court, Ms. Ashimola firmly stated that she had never died, that the death certificate was fraudulent, and that the Power of Attorney over her estate had been obtained illegally.

In a statement to the case, Deputy master Linwood said: “This is an unusual probate claim in that the deceased says she is very much alive,

“The root of this claim is a long running battle or campaign waged by a Mr Tony Ashikodi for control and/or ownership of the Property.

“Ms Ashimola left the UK for Nigeria in about October 2018 and has not returned since. This claim involves wide-ranging allegations of fraud, forgery, impersonation and intimidation.”

Deputy Master Linwood noted that the judge’s frustration stemmed from the fact that Ms. Ashimola was unable to attend the court in person due to visa issues, which made the evidence appear “unsatisfactory.”

However, he stated that he believed Ms. Ashimola was indeed who she claimed to be and was telling the truth, especially after being shown photos from her passports.

After hearing the Evidence of Mr. Ashikodi, who had previously been jailed for three years in 1996 for obtaining property by deception.

He added: “I find Ms Ashimola is alive and that the Death Certificate was forged and/or fraudulently obtained or produced or concocted,’ he said.

“Her alleged death was part of Mr Tony Ashikodi’s attempts to wrest control of the property from her.

“The person who appeared before me and identified herself as Ms Ashimola was physically like her photographs in each passport.

‘” find that Ms Ashimola was not married to Mr Lasisi and that the marriage certificate is a concocted or fraudulent document for these reasons.

“I do not accept Mr Lasisi exists or if he does is aware of his identity being used. I do not accept that emails supposedly from him were actually from him.

“I find that the probate power of attorney submitted supposedly by Mr Lasisi and Ms Samuel was a fraudulently produced or concocted document.

“The death certificate was not proven to the necessary standard in that only a copy was produced. The provenance was unknown. There was no evidence before me that it was a genuine document evidencing a real event.

“I find it was forged and/or fraudulently produced or concocted. The persons who relied upon it namely Mr Tony Ashikodi and Ms Samuel were either directly involved in its production or else knew it was false.”