A Nigerian social commentator, Yemi King, has publicly questioned the circumstances surrounding the reported death of British Nigerian influencer and businessman, Igho “Tiny” Ubiribo, pointing to the six month interval between the reported date of death and the public emergence of the coroner’s findings, and to the fact that the deceased had been declared wanted by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) since 2023.
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In a post on his verified X handle, the commentator stopped short of alleging that the death was staged, but argued that the sequence of events fits a pattern that has recurred in Nigerian criminal practice.
King opened by drawing attention to the gap between the reported date of death and the public disclosure of its cause.
“Yesterday they announced his death and the details of a gold-coffin burial in London, but Igho ‘Tiny’ Ubiribo had already been dead since March,” he wrote. “That six-month gap between the actual event and the public coroner’s report is the first thing that smells like a dead rat.”
He added: “People who live in the open don’t usually wait that long to let the full story out.”
The commentator then set out the enforcement record he said should colour any reading of the announcement.
“The same man NDLEA declared wanted in 2023 alongside his wife Danielle Simba Allen. The agency said the couple were the arrowheads of an international syndicate operating out of Los Angeles, using a Port Harcourt prophetess to recruit teenage girls as salesgirls for ‘Loud’ cannabis and other consignments.”
“A 32.7kg shipment was intercepted in Lagos, properties and an ₦80 million account were frozen, court orders went out, and the pair simply stopped answering invitations and vanished from official view. That is the official record from April 2023.”
King argued that the combination of a wanted status, a quiet death abroad, a delayed burial in a third country and a late inquest finding invites suspicion.
“When someone already on a wanted list dies quietly abroad, gets buried months later in another country, and the precise medical cause only surfaces after an inquest, the mind goes to a well-worn Nigerian playbook. Alleged criminals have been faking or delaying death announcements for years.”
In support, the commentator listed a series of earlier incidents involving false or contrived death claims.
He first pointed to a recent NDLEA case: “In May 2026 NDLEA re-arrested Ibrahim Yusuf Lawal after his wife submitted an affidavit claiming he had died of tuberculosis in 2024 and been buried according to Islamic rites. He was very much alive and had simply jumped bail.”
He then turned to the documentation trade: “Hospitals in Lagos have been caught issuing death certificates for living people for as little as ₦10,000. Pension fraudsters and insurance claimants have used the same trick. An EFCC suspect once presented a fake death certificate to investigators to try to close a case. These are a known tactic when the heat gets too close.”
Setting out the full chronology as he understands it, King acknowledged that nothing has been established against the reported account of the death.
“Tiny’s timeline of being declared wanted in 2023, dead in Thailand March 2026, lavish funeral May 2026, then full cause of death only public in September, fits the outline even if no one has proven a fake. The delay itself is a red flag.”
According to the reported findings of a United Kingdom coroner, Ubiribo, aged 43, died in Bangkok, Thailand, on March 5, after undergoing a cosmetic filler procedure while on holiday with his wife.
The reports state that he began to complain of chest pain shortly afterwards and suffered repeated loss of consciousness before he was taken to Sukhumvit Hospital, where he was unable to respond coherently to questions. He is said to have died of a pulmonary embolism before staff were able to carry out a CT scan, with medical personnel reportedly administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation for more than 100 minutes.
A postmortem examination is reported to have determined that the hyaluronic acid and lidocaine used in the injection entered his vascular system and caused the fatal embolism. The Inner West London Coroner’s Court is reported not to have immediately responded to a request for the postmortem report.
Ubiribo, who also went by the names “Ego” and “Denisi” online and had approximately 185,000 Instagram followers, was known for a lavish lifestyle. Reports say he owned a home in the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles valued at about 1.1 million dollars and an apartment in London valued at about 600,000 dollars, and that he married his wife in an elaborate ceremony in Zimbabwe in 2022. He was reportedly buried in London in a gold coffin said to have cost upwards of 745,000 dollars.
The NDLEA case referenced by King is reported to have begun in November 2022, when operatives at the Lagos airport intercepted a 32.70 kilogramme consignment of the synthetic cannabis strain known as “Loud,” said to have been smuggled from the United States concealed inside cartons of used clothing.
Arrested suspects are reported to have told investigators that the syndicate relied on a Port Harcourt based prophetess, named in the reports as Faith Ugochi, who allegedly used her church platform to recruit vulnerable teenage girls as couriers and sales representatives.
The agency is reported to have traced the financial trail to a company owned by the couple, Lasgidi Backwood Ltd, to have intercepted a transfer intended for a private account, and to have obtained a Federal High Court order freezing ₦80 million. Armed with a further order of the Federal High Court in Lagos, it is reported to have seized real estate and a fuel station in Lagos and Port Harcourt.
According to the reports, the NDLEA initially sent letters of invitation to the couple, who sent a legal representative to request more time before going incommunicado and leaving the country, prompting the Federal High Court in Lagos to declare them wanted in April 2023. Seized assets of that character are ordinarily processed towards final forfeiture to the Federal Government under the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act.
No agency has publicly confirmed or disputed the account of the death, and there is no suggestion on the record that the coroner’s findings are anything other than genuine.
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