Father’s Cry for Justice over Death of British-Nigerian Daughter, Alanis

Oladipo Ogundipe, the father of Alanis Ogundipe, a 26-year-old British-Nigerian who died by alleged suicide on May 29, 2023, is seeking justice and calling for the Nigerian government’s intervention, citing dissatisfaction with the outcome of the Coroner Inquest into her death. He also suspects a conspiracy and secrecy surrounding the circumstances that led to her passing in the UK. Sunday Ehigiator reports

Remembered by her father as a talented, intelligent, and beautiful young woman with a promising future, Alanis, a 26-year-old trainee accountant with KPMG, tragically passed on May 29 last year at Eccles railway station in Salford, Manchester, after jumping into a moving train.

An inquest at Bolton Coroners’ Court concluded that her death was a result of suicide, with possible contributing factors including short-term financial difficulties and a potential recent relationship breakdown.

However, this doesn’t sit right with her father, Oladipo, who believes that Alanis’s ex-boyfriend, Ryan Leggett, is culpable, as much as his wife, Josephine Dillon, who he long separated from in 2004, due to marital complications.

Oladipo is accusing Ryan of having infected Alanis with genital Herpes, a viral infection caused by the Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV), which causes painful blisters or ulcers around the genital area.

He accused Ryan of illegally breaking into his daughter’s phone, retrieving sensitive information from it, and blackmailing her with the information a day before. The very day she ended up killing herself.

He is also accusing his wife, Josephine (a Briton), of shielding the accused, Ryan, who is also a Briton, from the law, after Alanis had reported Ryan’s threats to her a day before her death, and she failed to inform the police and guide their daughter aright.

Who is Alanis?

Speaking about his daughter, Oladipo, who couldn’t hold back his tears, said, “Alanis is an amazing daughter. She was born on February 12, 1997. From the day I saw that girl and she cried, I felt it in my heart.

“Now when she was born, one of her lungs had an issue. So I felt I had to be more attentive to her. So I became very close to her. Alanis falls ill every winter. She always falls sick because of her lungs. Even during COVID, she had COVID.

“And that was why I had to get her a car. She said she needed less contact with the public to show how I was in total contact with her. She is a very brilliant girl, and very caring. She is just like a mother and sister to me.

“She’s very intelligent. And it’s been very difficult since she died. I’ve stopped my work.

“It’s so difficult to have continued. That’s why I started trying to dig to find out what happened. And everything I was told after she died has turned out contrary to the truth.”

Poking the Coroner’s Inquest report

Speaking on the findings of the Coroner’s Inquest, Oladipo, who wasn’t living in the UK at the time Alanis died, narrated, “The picture they painted was that Alanis had financial problems and that she had mental health issues, which I’d never, ever heard of before.

“And I told the mom, why didn’t you tell me about Alanis having mental health issues? She said, ‘Because if I told you about all the abuse she was facing, you would take her away from me.

“It didn’t make sense. And Alanis was expecting money on the week she died. So it was very strange that they were saying it was because of money. She still had her car. She didn’t sell the car. She didn’t sell her jewellery.

“She still received her salary from KPMG on May 28, 2023. The day Ryan broke into her phone; her salary was going to enter her account. So how can it be money, I was aware of all her debts. It’s not an issue. So I’ve been taking care of it. So it was not money.

“Even after she died, her mother still received a thousand pounds from Alanis by standing order. So it’s not financial issues.”

Ryan Leggett’s alleged culpability

Narrating what he thinks could have led his daughter to become suicidal, thereby dying by suicide, Oladipo reflected on advising Alanis to prioritize her career goals, including completing her university degree and obtaining her ACA at KPMG.

He said he had encouraged her to be cautious in her relationships, sharing examples of how relationships can end in hatred.

However, Alanis told him about Ryan at some point, and when he asked about his occupation, she couldn’t provide clear details. He said his attempts to verify his employment status in all the places he said he was working were unsuccessful, leading to concerns about his legitimacy.

Despite his reservations, he said he acknowledges his daughter’s independence and inability to force his guidance upon her.

According to him, “My daughter and her ex-boyfriend, Ryan Leggetts met in June 2022, and by the first week of August, he had given her herpes. My daughter was so ignorant that she thought she would not be able to meet anyone again due to the infection.

“Also, if they wanted to do anything together, he would loan her the money to make her do it. He would first tell her it was a gift and then tell her it was a loan.

“When Alanis was expecting to collect £102,000 in May 2023; her new salary of £2,000 was expected on May 28, 2023, and an additional £100,000 on May 30, 2023.

“Alanis passport was requested on May 26, 2023, for her to collect £100,000 I wanted to send to her which was meant for a particular investment in the UK. Both she and her brother had also been notified on May 19, 2023, that they would be visiting Nigeria shortly.

“Ryan, who knew about these, broke into her phone without her consent and stole her bank statements and other sensitive information whilst she was asleep at 10 am on May 28, 2023, in Manchester, to blackmail Alanis and use the stolen information for other purposes.

“Then he woke her up, shouted at her violently and kicked her out without her property and the passport she required to collect the money.

“This, Ryan admitted to me in writing on June 7, 2023, when I reached out to me after Alanis’ death. Ryan Leggett lied to the police in his witness statement on August 15, 2023, after admitting to me and showing me evidence in writing on June 7, 2023, that he stole Alanis password and had blackmailed Alanis until she died on May 29, 2023.

“Alanis was frightened on May 28, 2023, and promptly reported the psychological attack to her mother Josephine Dillon (also known as Josephine Ogundipe).

“On May 29, 2023, Ryan continued the psychological assault on Alanis in the presence of Josephine using the information he had stolen from her phone until Alanis agreed to his demands.

“Around 9 pm, according to the officers who attended the scene, Ryan repeatedly rang Alanis’s phone. Again, according to the officers who attended Alani’s flat, Ryan repeatedly rang Josephine’s mobile number.

“That was after Alanis had told him that she was ‘going to do it’ (kill herself) and he had failed to stop her, after failing to acknowledge the pain she cried out that she was feeling in her body.” Unfortunately, Alanis is dead and Oladipo claims no one did enough to prevent the incident, including Alanis’s mother.

Josephine’s alleged culpability

Accusing his wife and Alanis’s mother, Josephine, of possible culpability, Oladipo narrated that, though still married, he separated from his wife in 2004, and since then moved back to Nigeria, but has been very involved in his daughter’s life and maintained strong communication with Josephine.

According to him, “It’s very strange to me as well. It was very funny that I didn’t hear about all these things until after Alanis died; about the things Rana had been doing to Alanis, the various abuses, like the infection.

“I was very surprised that Josie (Josephine) did not break it up or encourage her daughter to break it up or report it to the police. I was very surprised. So to hear things that happened, even to things like Alanis even started gambling because of Ryan, to try to make money for him, because they had promised they wouldn’t go on holiday and all that.

“When this thing first happened Josie did not report. I mean, Alanis contacted her mum in the morning and said she had been attacked.

“The message exists. And Josie did not call the police immediately. I know Josie from the past when she called the police for things like that. Josie works with domestic abuse victims.

“She works with the police. So it was very funny that before Alanis died, Josie did not contact the police. She even sent me a message around noon on that day. And she didn’t tell me anything. Looking back, I’m wondering why she sent that message.

“Was it to see if I knew something had gone wrong? It was very strange. In the message, she just said that she’s heading to Manchester, if I could help her with some money? That was all she said.

“And she even appeared happy in the message. So she now got to Manchester. These are things I found out later on. I got the message that day, but I didn’t know anything was going on.

“Nobody told me anything at all. So after the event, there was no record of Josie telling the police anything. She didn’t encourage Alanis to go to the police. Instead, she’s encouraged Alanis to take antidepressants, which if you overdose on this tablet, can lead to increased thoughts of suicide.

“But I feel, if there’s been a criminal act where your phone has been broken into, you’ve told your mum, it should be the police that will douse that tension, especially where you’re being blackmailed, not a tablet. So even after she died and the police appeared, she still didn’t mention the crime to the police until I reported it from Nigeria.”

Demand for justice

Calling for justice, and help from the Nigerian government, Oladipo said, “A coroner’s inquest report into Alanis’s death came up on May 9. This was the point where it became clear that 1 had been a conspiracy all the while.

“The lawyer representing my family, while acting on the instruction of my wife, Josephine, told the court not to allow me to present my evidence, I was later allowed after insistence.

“The lawyer was also not in support of a question I planned to ask to prove that Leggett, who was also in attendance, did not get the consent of my late daughter before breaking into her phone.

“Part of this includes why he refused to tell the police the truth about his access to her phone.

“I have made allegations of murder and manslaughter against Ryan because he emotional and psychological injury upon Alanis from August 1, 2022, when he allegedly infected Alanis with a virus until May 28, 2023, when he broke into her phone and stole her bank statements and sensitive information with the of blackmailing her up until the 29th May 2023, when he continued to blackmail her and until she yielded to his demands and Alanis eventually died.

“The police have not taken my statement ever since I made this report to them. They’ve stuck by the statement Ryan gave them, He lied to them that Alanis gave him the password.

“I have contrary evidence where he admitted how he stole it when she was sleeping. She didn’t give him the phone and all those things. But they are not looking at that at all.

“They are saying Ryan had consent because of what he told them. He told them Alanis gave him the password. But I have evidence proving that he stole the password. It’s a chat between me and Ryan.

“I call on the UK authorities to carry out a thorough investigation into these matters to ensure that justice is served for my daughter; if the police do not wish to investigate then a private legal team will take up the case since there is no time limit for prosecution of crimes such as murder and manslaughter.

“Breaking into the phone itself is a stand-alone offence in the UK. There’s a law against it. You cannot do that. So he needs to be prosecuted for that. As for her mother, I leave her to God.

I’m not asking her to be prosecuted. I leave her to God to answer to her God. That’s her daughter. But Ryan, he’s going to do it again.

“I am calling on the Nigerian in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerian Embassy in the UK to please come to my aid, and help me get the UK police to reopen the case and get my testimony and all pieces of evidence I have, and reinvestigate the case so to get closure.”