Foreign
Blackmailed by boyfriend, Nigerian girl commits suicide in UK
Alanis was born in 1997 in the United Kingdom. She finished her A levels in 2016. She went to the University of Manchester where she studied Accounting and Finance. After that, she got a job with Marks Sattin as Finance Consultant and she did that for a year. She got another job with AM Fashion between 2020 and 2021. In 2021, she was hired by KPMG in the UK. She was employed so that she could do her ACA programme. Usually, people do it for three to or five years but she chose the one-year route. And she passed 14 out of 15 exams in 10 months. Everything was going well for her until last year when she met her boyfriend, Ryan Leggets, around June. He was introduced to her by one of her friends. The friend told Ryan that Alanis had access to free money.
How much did you know about your daughter’s relationship with the opposite sex?
I have always advised my daughter that she was able to complete her university because she was not in a serious relationship and I told her to wait until she completed the ACA and became chartered before she allowed a man to come in unless they were going to flop her. So when this guy came on board, it was sudden. She had just finished the 14th exam. She had been for over ten months she had not had any interaction, so she needed that interaction. It was this friend of hers who brought this guy from nowhere. I tried to discourage her but in a very smart way so she wouldn’t run away from me.
At what point did you get to know about their affair?
It was gradual but when I got to fully know was when she said Bryan was offering her a free gift to travel to Italy on her birthday on February 12 and I told her not to go. I told her not to accept a gift from him and that the guy was going to put her at his mercy. But before I knew it, she had actually gone. She now said the guy was paying for everything. This thing was not clear to me until after she had died before I got all the evidence. In less than one month of the relationship, he already said he wanted to marry her and take her to his mother. They met in June and by the first week of August, he had given her herpes. My daughter was ignorant that she thought she would not be able to meet anyone again due to the infection. She actually told her mother that she felt her life was ruined. She was stuck with the guy because of the infection. This is a girl who was a Director of my company in Nigeria, to whom I sent money regularly and who did not need his help for anything. If they wanted to do anything together, he would loan her the money so as to make her do it. He would first tell her it was a gift and then tell her it was a loan.
When did he start to blackmail her?
The whole thing escalated when they came back from Italy as he started asking for her bank statements on May 13. He started shouting at her. After she refused to give it to him, he waited till May 28 after he had found out that she was expecting 100,000 pounds and that her passport was required for this money to be sent. That was how he broke into her phone on May 28 around 10am while she was asleep.
What was the money meant for?
She was the Director of the company and we have been trying to involve her in so many ways. So the money was meant for a particular investment in the UK and we had been communicating about how we were going to send it. So it was possible that the guy knew about it. So after he broke into her phone and copied the information, he kicked her out of his flat violently and he seized the ID required to collect this money. At this point, my daughter did not realise that he had broken into her phone until he started to use the information to blackmail her. So he made her apologize to him and now used the apology to get to her agree in writing that she was going to pay him the coerced debt she owed her.
Since you didn’t know about this on time, was her mother also not aware?
On the day of the incident, she told her mother that she was going to leave Manchester because everybody was going to find out and that she was scared that she would lose her social group. The mother said the discussion with Ryan lasted the whole day as she was getting her to agree with his terms. Later in the day, she did her make-up, took her lipstick and car keys and she drove out of the house. The mother had no idea what she was up to as she did not look like anyone who wanted to kill herself. But she had more communication with Ryan on the phone and that is what I think led to the suicide. The police said the CCTV revealed that she was on a phone with someone when she suddenly jumped into a moving train. She did not survive it. She committed suicide four hours after she agreed to pay him.
Aside from manipulating her to apologise in writing, what other issues did Ryan raise to blackmail her?
He told Alanis that she traded and gambled with crypto with her money which was not his business. And she replied to him that she was doing that because of the both of them. Ryan also said he would expose her on how she had stayed awake and passed her university and professional exams by using stimulants. In the UK, there was a law against cohesive and controlling behaviours. Ryan’s action is geared towards that. Alanis had never had any issues with money until she met this guy.
At what point did you initiate a communication with Ryan?
I never spoke to him until a week after she died because I needed some clarity. I called him out of love even when I did not know what had really happened. That was when he shared what transpired between them with me. He showed me how my daughter begged him and how she was going through pain. He told me how he broke into her phone without a password. In the communication he shared with me, I discovered that after the apology, my daughter told her everything he had been saying was a lie. My daughter in the conversation said she was in pain. That was when I realized the guy had actually deceived her and got her to apologise and pay. The idea of sharing the information with me was to make me feel she genuinely apologized. But when I realized this, I told him the second day he was responsible for what happened and he started attacking me with all sorts of words.
What have the police authorities done since the incident happened?
Since she left her mum in the house to commit suicide and the police came to her door some minutes later, they have not collected her mother’s statement as I am speaking to you. What they have been using is the information this guy has shown them where she apologized to him. The guy was prepared, we were not prepared because it came as a shock to us. I complained on July 26 because the British Transport Police were going to close the case after their initial investigation. After I got the information from the guy and showed them the evidence, they ‘crimed’ that aspect and forwarded it to Manchester police. The officer they assigned promised to return in three days after he finished speaking to the suspect and check my daughter’s phone, but he never did. He just wrote his report that there was no evidence. We complained against him to the police watchdog and they promised to review what the officer did. That is where we are.
How concerned are you about the documents with Ryan and why he has not been arrested?
Nobody knows the extent of what he copied. His phone has not been collected. My daughter was the Director of my company. Do we know what else he had taken from that phone aside from what he showed me? He has not been arrested or questioned. They have based everything on Bryan’s own statement. That is the only person they have listened to. And it was because the guy was ahead of us and that is what has been helping him to date. He has been walking freely since the ‘criming’ of the evidence. He also tried to use the information with him to obtain money from me. How can he use that information to get away when there is a law in the UK called computer misuse? They have not even extracted the last communication they both had. I need justice for my daughter. This kind of thing should not happen to any parent.
An Australia-based Nigerian, Foluso Omole, is facing trial over his alleged role in a $5m fraud involving the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Omole was arrested by operatives of the Australian Federal Police at Adelaide Airport last Friday while allegedly attempting to flee Australia.
According to the report, Omole had allegedly “cut ties” in Adelaide and was preparing to travel to Nigeria before his arrest, a court heard.
The 38-year-old appeared before the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday, where his bail application was refused following allegations that he had attempted to leave Australia for Nigeria.
The court heard that Omole, a dual Australian and Nigerian citizen, had “purchased a one-way ticket to Nigeria” before his arrest.
A prosecutor also told the court that Omole appeared to have “sent, over the course of his offending, significant funds back to Nigeria”, where his wife resides.
The report stated that Omole was working as an NDIS coordinator and operating two businesses that employed several staff at the time of the alleged offences.
The prosecutor reportedly told the court that Omole allegedly received information “improperly” from a woman employed by the National Disability Insurance Agency over a period of six years and “used that information to obtain benefit fraudulently”.
The woman, who has also been charged in connection with the alleged fraud, was expected to appear in court on Thursday.
However, disputing the allegation that Omole intended to flee Australia, his lawyer, Mark Twiggs, told the court that his client had informed him that he planned to travel to London on a “return ticket” purchased before any raid on the woman’s home.
“The charges are denied. He has no record at all.
“My client has good reason why he should be given bail,” Twiggs said.
Omole is yet to enter pleas to one count of dealing with proceeds of an indictable crime worth more than $1m and one count of dealing with money or property valued at more than $1m that is allegedly the proceeds of crime.
Magistrate Patrick Hill, however, refused bail, citing concerns that Omole posed a flight risk.
“Whether it was a one-way ticket to Nigeria or a return ticket to London does make a difference as to the court’s assessment of whether or not Mr Omole is a flight risk.
“For the other reasons put forward by the prosecution, in any event, I remain concerned that he is a risk of flight and the bail application is refused,” Hill said.
In April, a Nigerian couple, Luciana and Femi Akanbi, were jailed in the United Kingdom for their involvement in a similar fraud scheme.
The couple reportedly used personal data belonging to Transport for London employees to carry out a tax rebate fraud scheme that cost the public purse more than £433,000.
The fraud, which was carried out between September 2021 and January 2022, was reportedly based on sensitive information belonging to at least 40 TfL workers, including passport details, National Insurance numbers and bank records. The information was used to submit 139 fraudulent tax refund claims.
Court proceedings at Woolwich Crown Court revealed that Luciana Akanbi, 38, who worked in TfL’s human resources department, had access to the personal records of about 107 employees, which were later exploited for the scheme.
A United States federal court has set August 21, 2026, as the deadline for the release of records linked to longstanding allegations concerning Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and U.S. financial accounts associated with him in the 1990s.
The records are being sought in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by Aaron Greenspan, which has reportedly been before the federal courts for more than three years.
The documents are understood to be held by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The development followed a reported request by the DOJ for an additional 10 days to comply with an earlier court order requiring the release of the records.
According to Von Batten, a Washington, D.C.-based Republican lobbying firm, Tinubu also joined the DOJ’s request for the extension.
The firm said it obtained a copy of a recent court filing submitted on Tinubu’s behalf and claimed that the Nigerian president formally joined the request just two business days before it became public.
However, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell rejected the request for additional time and directed that the records be released by August 21.
Von Batten said Tinubu’s reported decision to participate in the extension request raised questions about his reasons for seeking more time before the records are made public.
The firm alleged that the delay could potentially be used to lobby U.S. officials over concerns that releasing the documents might affect U.S.-Nigeria relations.
It further speculated that Tinubu could argue that disclosure of the records might affect his cooperation with Washington on counterterrorism and security matters.
The records relate to allegations dating back to the early 1990s, including the 1993 forfeiture of approximately $460,000 connected to accounts associated with Tinubu in a U.S. proceeding involving suspected proceeds of narcotics trafficking.
Tinubu has consistently denied wrongdoing and has rejected allegations linking him personally to drug trafficking.
Von Batten also warned against any attempt by U.S. officials to interfere with the FOIA or judicial process to prevent the records from being released.
The lobbying firm referenced U.S. President Donald Trump’s stated opposition to shielding individuals accused of serious criminal conduct, arguing that the legal process should be allowed to proceed without political interference.
With Judge Howell’s ruling in place, the records are expected to be released on or before August 21, unless further legal action changes the deadline.
The contents of the documents remain unknown, and their release could provide further information about the 1990s forfeiture proceedings and U.S. law-enforcement investigations involving accounts linked to Tinubu.
South Africa’s anti-immigration group, March and March, has announced September 30 as a fresh deadline for undocumented foreigners to leave the country, as it staged a protest outside the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Durban on Monday.
The group marched through central Durban under the theme, “It’s time to fetch your people,” calling on African leaders attending the 46th SADC Summit to take back their citizens living in South Africa without legal documentation.
March and March had earlier led nationwide protests on June 30, demanding tougher government action against undocumented immigration and warning that its campaign would continue until its demands were addressed.
Announcing its latest action, the group said the September 30 deadline would mark the beginning of what it described as the “mother of all protests”, while urging South Africans to assist the police in identifying undocumented foreigners.
The protest took place as the 46th Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government got underway in Durban, with leaders from the regional bloc’s 16 member states in attendance.
The demonstration has renewed debate over South Africa’s treatment of foreign nationals, particularly citizens of other African countries.
President Cyril Ramaphosa recently condemned discrimination and violence against foreigners, saying South Africa could not advocate regional integration at the SADC summit while practising exclusion within the country.
The June 30 protests were accompanied by security operations and reports of attacks and looting in some areas, according to police reports cited in the original report.
March and March has continued to demand tougher action against undocumented immigration, while tensions over the treatment of foreign nationals have prompted some African countries to evacuate their citizens from South Africa.
The latest protest has brought the immigration dispute directly to the doorstep of the SADC summit, placing the issue before regional leaders whose citizens are among those affected.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of a US deal with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, while calling on Tehran to surrender.
Trump made the remarks in an interview with Fox News journalist Trey Yingst, amid ongoing talks between Oman and Iran over future maritime navigation arrangements through the strategic waterway.
“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” Trump said, referring to the discussions between Oman and Iran as Washington pursues its own negotiations.
Iranian and Omani officials have been holding talks for weeks, with Iran’s Foreign Ministry saying Monday that both sides were working towards a joint declaration on the strait.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Strait of Hormuz is under US control, despite Iran maintaining an effective blockade that has severely restricted maritime traffic.
On Friday, Trump said he could even declare the Strait of Hormuz part of US territory, prompting Iran to insist that the strategic waterway “will remain Iranian.”
Trump also called on Iran to “put up the white flag of surrender,” according to Yingst.
The Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Iran to the north and Oman to the south, was previously regarded as an open international waterway and carries a significant share of global energy shipments.
AFP
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