‘Dead’ Nigerian Lady Appears In London Court Via Videolink To Stop Her £350,000 London Home Seizure
Ms. June Ashimola, a Nigerian woman who was falsely declared dead, has appeared in court via videolink from Nigeria to stop a convicted fraudster from seizing her £350,000 London home.
Ashimola, 55, supposedly died in February 2019 in her native country, which sparked a bizarre long-running battle for her estate.
But she appeared before High Court judge John Linwood to declare that she was very much alive and was a victim of a scam.
The court was told Ashimola had brought the case after being falsely declared dead and Power of Attorney over her estate -which consisted principally of a house- was granted to associates of convicted fraudster Tony Ashikodi.
Ashimola had left Britain for Nigeria in 2018 and had not returned, the court heard.
In October 2022, power of attorney over the estate was given to Ms Ruth Samuel on behalf of Mr Bakare Lasisi, who claimed he married Ashimola in 1993.
But the judge ruled Ashimola had been the victim of fraud and that Lasisi did not even exist.
It was claimed Ashimola died in Nigeria in 2019 without leaving a will with a copy of her alleged death certificate being produced at the High Court.
Claims were made that sightings of Ashimola since her death were actually a woman ‘masquerading’ as her.
But Ashimola told the court she was only ‘allegedly deceased’, that the certificate was ‘false and fraudulent’, and the grant relating to her estate and a house in Woolwich, south east London, had been ‘improperly’ obtained.
“This is an unusual probate claim in that the deceased says she is very much alive,” Deputy Master Linwood said.
“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.”
To decide her request to revoke the grant, Deputy Master Linwood said that among others, he had to answer the following questions: “Is June Ashimola alive? Is the person claiming to be June Ashimola her? Did Mr Lasisi marry June Ashimola?”
To the judge’s frustration, Ms Ashimola was unable to attend the court in person due to visa issues which left aspects of her evidence ‘unsatisfactory’, he said.
However, he did believe she was who she said she was and that she was telling the truth as well as being shown photos from her passports.
And after hearing the evidence of Mr Ashikodi —who was jailed for three years in 1996 for obtaining property by deception— Deputy Master Linwood concluded he had ‘orchestrated’ the fraud and attempted to ‘mislead the court’.
Among his more surprising findings was that Ashimola’s husband, Lasisi, did not in fact exist, despite numerous emails purportedly sent by him.
“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. I 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.”
Based on his findings, Deputy Master Linwood revoked the grant relating to the power of attorney.
The court was told that between them, the two parties had already run up ‘disproportionate’ legal costs of more than £150,000, which may exceed the equity in the property.
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