June Ashimola
By Akeem Atoyebi
A Nigerian woman, June Ashimola falsely declared dead has made an appearance in court via videolink from Nigeria to prevent a convicted fraudster from seizing her £350,000 (approximately N696 million as of March 13) house in London, United Kingdom.
Ashimola, 55, was allegedly declared dead in February 2019, igniting a long drawn legal battle over her estate.
However, she presented herself before Deputy Master John Linwood, declaring that she was alive and was a victim of a scam.
According to DailyMail on Wednesday, the court heard that following her false declaration of death, the power of attorney over her estate, which comprised primarily of a house, was given to Ms. Ruth Samuel, acting on behalf of Bakare Lasisi, who had made a false declaration that he had married Ashimola in 1993.
However, the judge ruled that the supposed marriage was a fabrication and that Lasisi did not exist.
According to court records, Ashimola left the UK for Nigeria in 2018 and had not returned since.
By October 2022, power of attorney had been awarded to Samuel on behalf of the fictitious Lasisi, who laid claim to Ashimola’s estate.
The judge ultimately discovered that Tony Ashikodi, a convicted fraudster who served three years in prison in 1996 for obtaining property by deception, was behind the elaborate scheme to seize her home.
“This is an unusual probate claim in that the deceased says she is very much alive,” Deputy Master Linwood remarked, describing the case as a web of fraud, forgery, impersonation, and intimidation.
“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,” Linwood added.
Despite visa trouble stopping her from appearing in person, Ashimola’s identity was verified through passport photographs, leading the judge to dismiss the claims against her estate.
After reviewing the evidence, Deputy Master Linwood ruled, “’I find Ms Ashimola is alive and that the death certificate was forged and/or fraudulently obtained or produced or concocted.
“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.”
Ashikodi was accused of attempting to mislead the court and found that both Ashikodi and Samuel were either directly involved in producing the fraudulent documents or knowingly relied on them.
He noted, “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.’”
As a result, the power of attorney was revoked, safeguarding Ashimola’s rightful ownership of her £350,000 property.
The court also heard that legal costs incurred by both parties have exceeded £150,000, an amount that may surpass the property’s equity value.
