Elizabeth Ayomide Oyelami, a Nigerian medical laboratory worker, was allegedly threatened over her late father’s business interests and family property, forcing her to flee Nigeria and seek refuge in the United Kingdom.
Elizabeth fears returning to Nigeria because her life is at risk. Unknown individuals targeted members of her family over valuable land and other business assets, leaving her convinced she could face the same fate as her father and brother.
Elizabeth and her older brother were named signatories to their father’s bank accounts and listed as next of kin on deeds to family-owned land and other properties, and her responsibilities included access to some of her father’s accounts while he was alive.
Elizabeth, whose father also owned a hotel and extensive land holdings in the Ashi-Bodija area of Ibadan, lived between Lagos and Ibadan while working in a pathology laboratory from 2024. The Oyelami family was influential in the city but admitted Elizabeth did not know the full extent of her father’s business interests.
Her family had endured a series of tragedies beginning in 2024. Around April or May that year, her stepbrother began receiving threatening phone calls. The callers allegedly referenced disputes over family property and warned that he would be killed.
The threats came from unidentified callers using concealed or untraceable telephone numbers. Although her brother reportedly informed the police, she said no progress was made because the numbers could not be traced.
Her brother later died on August 3, 2024, under suspicious circumstances, and rumours circulated that another person had been with him before his death.
Her father also received threats following her brother’s death and temporarily relocated to Togo before returning to Nigeria. He died on January 22, 2025, after reportedly suffering from high blood pressure.
Although she said she could not establish the exact cause of her father’s death, she believes the threats may have contributed to his declining health.
Following her father’s death, Elizabeth visited a pension administrator in an attempt to access information relating to one of his accounts; officials requested documentation, including death certificates, and shortly afterwards she began receiving threats herself.
Fearing for her safety, she changed her phone number and later her WhatsApp account after being advised by her mother not to attend family meetings held after her father’s burial because of security concerns.
Elizabeth’s mother and younger siblings later relocated from Ibadan to their ancestral community in Ibarapa, Oyo State, following the deaths of her father and brother, and the move was intended to keep the family away from those they believed posed a threat.
Despite operating a beauty business alongside her laboratory job, Elizabeth eventually decided to leave Nigeria after discussions with her husband and mother, both of whom encouraged her to relocate.
Since arriving in the United Kingdom, Elizabeth has changed all her contact details and has not received further threats directly. However, relatives had asked her mother about her whereabouts.
Elizabeth fled to the UK for her personal safety as she might eventually be killed if she ever returned to Nigeria.
