Headline

UK Publishes Names Of Dead Nigerians With Unclaimed Estates, Assets

Published

3 years ago

September 16, 2022

Editor

One of the unclaimed estates

No fewer than 56 dead Nigerian names with reported unclaimed estates and other valuable assets in the United Kingdom have been published by the United Kingdom government.

This was contained in UK’s government Treasury Solicitor website which was last updated on September 8, 2022, as reported by BusinessDay.

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The unclaimed estates have a 30-year time limit from the date of death before it is removed if no person comes to claim the ownership.

Oldest victim
According to the report, one of the oldest affected Nigerians was identified as Mark N’wogo, who died on December 9, 1992, in Surrey, United Kingdom.

But the assets he left behind have gone unclaimed for nearly 30 years, which means that his properties would be surrendered to the British government by December 2022.

He was believed to have served in the Navy, which gave his birth year as 1926, and to have an unspecified family in Sapele, Delta state, but neither this individual nor any others had stepped forward to claim the deceased’s possessions.

The values of these estates are not published; instead, only information about their deceased owners is available.

Familiar name
Another familiar name on the list is Victor Adedapo Olufemi Fani-Kayode, who is alleged to have died on August 15, 2001, in Birmingham, with the Birmingham City Council identified as the informant.

The Treasury Solicitor released a list of untaken estates that had recently been mentioned but had not yet been managed, as well as past instances that had been administered but had not yet been claimed within the time constraints for doing so.

Estates with a 30-year time limit from the date of death are likewise exempted.

“We frequently hear of accounts in financial institutions belonging to deceased people that are never claimed and are never made public by these institutions. I believe we can take a leaf out of the UK’s book in this area to promote transparency,” says Olaitan Akinnubi, a Lagos-based lawyer.

“I believe that making information about deceased people and their unclaimed assets public in the UK is something that is worthwhile.”

However, most of the deceased have little information on relatives to whom their assets may be transferred, and for those with available information, it is quite inadequate and hard to trace beneficiaries.

Other names
The list includes a certain Arbel Aai’Lotta’Qua Abouarh that died on February 5, 1998, in Chiswick, London, and is thought to have different variations in the spelling of his name. Information on file indicates that he may have been married in December 1959 (place unknown) and had four children from the marriage.

It is further stated he was born in Northern Nigeria on or about the 3rd March 1930 and his parents are said to be Alfred Hallim Abouarh and Addanue Abouarh nee Onwudachi. Information on file also indicates that he had a sister (deceased) and a twin brother (possibly living in Germany).

There is also Paul (Akinola) Bernard who was born in Lagos and died in London on October 12, 2008. Available information suggests he married a 2nd wife, Marie Vidarte de Castro in 1970, but she also died in August 2008. He is believed to have a daughter from his first marriage which ended around 1970.

Born in Ibadan on August 2, 1958, John Olaolu Bankole died in London on April 27, 2010. The information available includes a Decree Absolute dissolving the deceased’s marriage on 11 November 2002, while his marriage certificate states that his father’s name is Oladipupo Bankole.

While Enwukwe Graham Kwedi Edde, who died on January 6, 2011, in London is only known to have been born in Diobu, River State, Charles Ayodele Aliu, who died on March 31, 2011, in Solihull, West Midlands is said to “have a possible cousin in Nigeria”.

Sunny Eyo Edem, who died on September 16, 2011, in Fulham is believed to have a “Possible son and relatives in Calabar, Nigeria”. Also, William Kadry, who died on November 1, 2011, in Fulham, is said to have been born in Iponri, Lagos State, and his father Akanni Kadiri died in 1941, while his mother Muniratu Kadiri died in 1958.

Recent additions to the list include Solomon Adekanmibi who died on January 31, 2021, in Colchester, Essex; Eugene Bucknor, who died on March 2, 2021, in Brockley, London; Jeff Adhekeh, who died on March 12, 2021, in South Kensington, London and Louisa Holmes, who died on May 24, 2021, in Cheam Sutton.

According to Akinnubi, the legal practitioner, “For the relatives of any such deceased person or any other person entitled to the estate of any of the listed deceased persons, it is advisable that they engage a Probate Solicitor or Practitioner in the UK to help and guide them through the process of obtaining letters of administration in respect of the deceased person’s Estate in the UK.”

Headline

Afghanistan-Pakistan Border Clashes Escalate After Alleged Air Strikes

Published

11 hours ago

October 11, 2025

Editor

Afghanistan’s Taliban forces launched armed reprisals against Pakistani soldiers along the shared border on Saturday, accusing Islamabad of carrying out air strikes on its soil, senior officials from several provinces said Saturday.

On Thursday, two explosions were heard in the Afghan capital and another in the southeast of the country. The following day, the Taliban-run defence ministry blamed the attacks on Pakistan, accusing its neighbor of violating its sovereignty.

“In retaliation for air strikes carried out by the Pakistani army on Kabul,” Taliban forces are engaged “in heavy clashes against Pakistani security forces in various areas” along the border, the Afghan military said in a statement.

Islamabad did not confirm that it was behind Thursday’s attacks, but called on Kabul “to stop harbouring the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) on its soil.”

The TTP, trained in combat in Afghanistan and claiming to share the same ideology as the Afghan Taliban, is accused by Islamabad of having killed hundreds of its soldiers since 2021.

Taliban officials from Kunar, Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost, and Helmand provinces — all located on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan — confirmed that clashes were ongoing.

“This evening, Taliban forces began using weapons. We fired first light and then heavy artillery at four points along the border,” a senior official in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan, told AFP.

“Pakistani forces responded with heavy fire and shot down three Afghan quadcopters suspected of carrying explosives. Intense fighting continues, but so far, no casualties have been reported,” he continued.

– Uptick in violence –

In recent months, TTP militants have intensified their campaign of violence against Pakistani security forces in the mountainous areas bordering Afghanistan.

Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to expel militants who use Afghan territory to launch attacks on Pakistan, an accusation denied by authorities in Kabul.

The TTP and its affiliates are behind most of the violence — largely directed at security forces.

Earlier this year, a UN report said the TTP “receive substantial logistical and operational support from the de facto authorities”, referring to the Taliban government in Kabul.

Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told parliament on Thursday that several efforts to convince the Afghan Taliban to stop backing the TTP had failed.

“We will not tolerate this any longer,” Asif said. “United, we must respond to those facilitating them, whether the hideouts are on our soil or Afghan soil.”

Earlier Saturday, the TTP claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in several districts in northwest Pakistan that killed 20 security officials and three civilians.

AFP

Headline

Taliban Attacks Kill 23 In Northwestern Pakistan

Published

15 hours ago

October 11, 2025

Editor

The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in several northwestern districts that killed 20 security officials and three civilians.

The attacks, which included a suicide bombing on a police training school, were carried out on Friday in several districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan.

Militancy has surged in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the withdrawal of US-led troops from neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021 and the return of the Taliban government in Kabul.

Eleven paramilitary troops were killed in the border Khyber district, while seven policemen were killed after a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into the gate of a police training school, which was followed by a gun attack.

Five people, including three civilians, were killed in a separate clash in Bajaur district, security officials told AFP on Saturday.

The Pakistani Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attacks in messages on social media. The group is separate from but closely linked with the Afghan Taliban.

The attacks came hours after Afghanistan’s Taliban government accused Pakistan of “violating Kabul’s sovereign territory”, a day after two explosions were heard in the capital.

Pakistan did not say if it was behind the blasts in Kabul, but said it had the right to defend itself against surging border militancy.

Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to expel militants using Afghan territory to launch attacks on Pakistan, an accusation that authorities in Kabul deny.

The TTP and its affiliates are behind most of the violence — largely directed at security forces.

Including Friday’s attacks, at least 32 Pakistani troops and three civilians have been killed this week alone in the border regions.

AFP

Headline

US Threatens To Sanction Countries That Vote For Shipping Carbon Tax

Published

15 hours ago

October 11, 2025

Editor

The United States on Friday threatened to impose sanctions and take other punitive action against any country that votes in favor of a carbon tax on maritime transportation to be implemented through a UN agency.

“We will fight hard to protect our economic interests by imposing costs on countries if they support” the Net Zero Framework, said a joint statement by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his counterparts at the departments of energy and transportation.

Members of the London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO) are set to vote next week on the adoption of the Net Zero Framework (NZF) agreement aimed at reducing global carbon emissions from the shipping sector.

Washington, however, described the proposal as imposing “a global carbon tax on the world.”

Since returning to power in January, US President Donald Trump has reversed Washington’s course on climate change, denouncing it as a “scam” and encouraging fossil fuel use by deregulation.

In the statement, Rubio, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Trump administration “unequivocally rejects” the NZF proposal.

They threatened a range of punishing actions against countries that vote in favor of the framework, including: visa restrictions; blocking vessels registered in those countries from US ports; imposing commercial penalties; and considering sanctions on officials.

“The United States will be moving to levy these remedies against nations that sponsor this European-led neocolonial export of global climate regulations,” the statement said.