Davido’s Friend, Igho Ubiribo, Died From a $9,000 Penis Enlargement Gone Wrong
Igho “Tiny” Ubiribo, a British-Nigerian businessman and social media personality known for his lavish lifestyle and close ties to Afrobeat star Davido, died in March after a cosmetic procedure in Bangkok triggered a fatal blood clot, a London coroner ruled this week, closing an inquest into a death that has stunned his wide circle of friends and followers.
Ubiribo, who also went by the nicknames Denisi and Ego, was 43.
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The inquest, held at Inner West London Coroners’ Court, found that Ubiribo died from a pulmonary embolism brought on by a penis-enlargement procedure he underwent at an unnamed clinic in Bangkok in March.
Coroner Jean Harkin determined that the injection of 40 millilitres of hyaluronic acid and lidocaine into his body led to the clot that ultimately blocked a blood vessel in his lungs.
According to testimony presented at the inquest, Ubiribo had traveled to Thailand on a luxury holiday with his wife, Danielle Simba Allen, a fashion designer and socialite. The couple was staying at a Marriott hotel in Bangkok when Ubiribo had the procedure done.
Afterward, the two went for a massage, during which Ubiribo began complaining of chest pain and lost consciousness twice.
He was rushed by ambulance to Sukhumvit Hospital, where he was initially alert enough to answer questions from medical staff. Allen told doctors about the filler injection her husband had received earlier that day, but Ubiribo lost consciousness again before physicians could carry out a recommended CT scan.
Doctors soon diagnosed a pulmonary embolism and moved him into intensive care, where medical personnel performed CPR for more than 100 minutes in an effort to revive him. He died in the early hours of March 6.
A postmortem examination conducted afterward in Britain found cellular material in Ubiribo’s lungs that matched the hyaluronic acid used during the Bangkok procedure, providing the physical evidence that led Harkin to her ruling.
Medical experts have long warned about the risks associated with hyaluronic acid fillers used for genital enhancement, a niche but growing segment of the cosmetic industry.
Such procedures, which can cost as much as $9,000 and typically last only six to nine months, carry the risk of the filler entering the bloodstream and travelling to the lungs, a complication that can prove fatal, as it did in Ubiribo’s case.
Ubiribo had built a following of roughly 185,000 people on Instagram, where he cultivated an image built around wealth and extravagance. He owned a home valued at $1.1 million in the Crenshaw neighbourhood of Los Angeles and an apartment in London worth roughly $600,000. In 2022, he and Allen were married in an elaborate ceremony in Zimbabwe reported to have cost around $473,000.
Ubiribo was buried in London in a gold coffin said to have cost more than $745,000, a farewell that drew a roster of prominent mourners reflecting his standing among Nigerian entertainment and nightlife circles.
Attendees included Davido, the Grammy-nominated Afrobeat artist who had been a childhood friend of Ubiribo’s; Pastor Tobi Adegboyega; and Obinna Iyiegbu, the nightlife entrepreneur known as Obi Cubana.
At the funeral, Davido delivered an emotional tribute to his longtime friend. “I won’t lie, it is not easy when someone like Tiny leaves,” he said. “His absence is heavy; it doesn’t feel real. A man of so much energy, so much presence. The silence is heavy. He is not someone I ever thought I would be speaking about in the past tense.”
The ruling brings a measure of closure to a case that had circulated widely on social media in the months since Ubiribo’s death, much of it in the form of speculation that the coroner’s findings have now formally addressed.
