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.
The Nigerian community in the United States has been thrown into mourning following the sudden death of Eric Ezeokoli, a student of California State University, Long Beach.
Ezeokoli, who was born on October 6, 1960, reportedly died on Friday, April 11, 2026, at Saint Mary’s Hospital after a brief illness.
Until his death, he was studying Engineering at the university, also known as Long Beach State University. Sources disclosed that he had previously lived in San Jose before relocating to the Los Angeles area.
Tragically, at the time of his passing, Ezeokoli was said to be homeless and living in his car, with no fixed address.
The deceased was originally from Anambra State, although details about his exact hometown remain unclear. There are indications he may have hailed from Aguata, but this has not been officially confirmed.
Efforts are currently underway to locate his family members and relatives in Nigeria. Members of the Nigerian community and concerned individuals are appealing to anyone with useful information about Ezeokoli’s background or family to come forward.
A contact person, Paul Kizito Eze, has been designated to receive information that could help trace the deceased’s relatives.
The appeal has also been extended to people from Anambra State, particularly those familiar with communities in Aguata, to assist in identifying and notifying the family.
The situation has sparked renewed concern over the welfare of some Nigerians living abroad, especially those facing hardship and isolation.
Anyone with relevant information is urged to reach out urgently to assist in reconnecting the late Ezeokoli with his family for proper burial arrangements.
President Donald Trump doubled down Monday on his threat to wreck Iran’s civilian infrastructure, warning US forces could destroy every bridge and power plant in the country within four hours and that a truce proposal from international mediators was not yet enough.
Five weeks into the Middle East war triggered by a joint US-Israeli air assault on Tehran, the US leader has demanded that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping by midnight GMT on Tuesday, or face a newly devastating round of bombing.
Both Trump and Iran have said that a proposal touted by international mediators for a 45-day ceasefire is not yet ready, and in a Washington press conference, the US president dialled up his warlike rhetoric once again.
“We have a plan — because of the power of our military — where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again,” Trump said.
Trump had earlier accepted the ceasefire plan was a “significant proposal”, but went on to say it was not good enough. Iranian state media quotes officials stating that Tehran too “has rejected a ceasefire and insists on the need for a definitive end to the conflict”.
Trump said intermediaries “are negotiating now” on improving the ceasefire proposal, which US media reported was being mediated by Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey.
Iran’s military said it would “continue the war as long as the political authorities see fit”.
Trump’s latest threats, including a profanity-laced social media post on Sunday, have sent shockwaves through the international community.
International Committee of the Red Cross chief Mirjana Spoljaric warned that “deliberate threats… against essential civilian infrastructure” are illegal.
But talk of a ceasefire came as the US and Israel were striking targets across Iran, including major petrochemical facilities, and as Iran continued missile and drone attacks around the region.
Iran’s virtual blockade of Hormuz has sent oil and gas prices soaring and pushed countries around the world to enact measures to contain the fallout.
Earlier Monday, Israeli strikes had hit major Iranian petrochemical facilities, including in Asaluyeh on the Gulf coast, the country’s biggest, and another outside Shiraz in central Iran.
Israel’s military said it had also struck Iranian air force targets, including planes and helicopters at airports in Tehran and elsewhere.
Iran’s Guards posted on Telegram on Monday that their intelligence chief Majid Khademi, had been killed at dawn in US-Israeli strikes.
Israel’s military also said it had killed Asghar Bagheri, commander of the Guards’ Quds Force special operations unit, on Sunday.
“We will reach anyone who seeks to harm us,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
The Guards’ Intelligence Organisation vowed a “major retaliatory strike” against those responsible for killing their commanders, their official Sepah News website reported.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they launched an attack targeting Israel, supporting their backer Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The war, which erupted on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has engulfed the Middle East and roiled the global economy.
The worldwide oil squeeze has hit aviation, with Indonesia on Monday saying it would increase a jet fuel surcharge and low-cost carrier Air Asia X announcing ticket price hikes of up to 40 per cent.
South Korea will send ships to fetch oil from Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu, avoiding Hormuz altogether, a ruling party MP said, while Taiwan’s government said it too would take the Red Sea route.
Gulf nations allied with the US have also been sucked into the war, with Kuwait and the UAE reporting strikes and injuries from Sunday to Monday.
Iran has continued to launch attacks at Israel, where the military and medics said four bodies were recovered from a residential building in the northern city of Haifa that was struck by a missile.
Iranian media reported several attacks on residential areas of Tehran, while the state broadcaster said gas outages hit parts of the capital after a strike on a university.
AFP
Some Nigerians in India have raised the alarm over what they described as increased racial profiling and brutalisation by the Indian police.
They lamented visa regularisation challenges and high renewal fees, which they said had made life unbearable in the Asian country.
Some of the residents alleged that some Nigerian students were physically assaulted, adding that reporting to the authorities had changed nothing.
NANS issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Federal Government for urgent diplomatic engagement, warning that it would escalate advocacy actions nationwide if the issues were not addressed.
Speaking with journalists during the demonstration, the NANS Vice President (Special Duties), Abubakar Mallawa, decried the alleged ill-treatment of Nigerians, adding that the association had received multiple distress reports from students in Indian cities, particularly Mumbai, over visa challenges, discriminatory practices and systematic profiling.
He noted that the affected students and other Nigerians engaged in legitimate businesses had faced difficulties in renewing visas, mass arrests linked to immigration status, denial of rental accommodation based solely on nationality, closure of Nigerian-owned shops, confiscation of goods, and, in some cases, forceful entry into residences and detention under degrading conditions.
The group also raised concerns over the visa application process, alleging that Nigerian applicants were often required to pay interview and processing fees but denied visas without clear explanations.
In a recent interview on Arise TV, the National Secretary of NANS, Anzaku Shedrack, said the group had been receiving disturbing videos showing the brutalisation of Nigerians in several parts of India, and called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intervene.
A video clip played by the tv station showed some suspected Indians attacking and stoning an individual, said to be a Nigerian, on the floor.
In an interview with Saturday PUNCH, the Education Coordinator of the Association of African Students in India, Rajasthan chapter, Abisola Williams, said Nigerians were going through tough times in India.
Williams also admitted that Nigerian students were seriously affected by regularisation challenges.
The third-year physiotherapy student explained that India does not grant permanent residency to international students.
“It’s either you’re a student or a professional with a work visa. As for Nigerians, we have to renew our visas every year, as students or professionals,” she said.
Williams noted that Indian authorities reserved the right to deny visa extensions to students who failed to meet academic or financial obligations.
Another Nigerian student in Delhi, who spoke on condition of anonymity, alleged that Nigerians were required to pay 10,000 rupees (about N146,000) every three months to renew their visas, a fee she claimed is lower for students from other African countries.
“Other students from other African countries do not pay for it. We were told it was an agreement between the Indian and Nigerian governments for students to pay every three months. I know Zimbabweans who are not paying to renew visas, while Ghanaians pay a maximum of 500 rupees, which is about N8,000. This is just unfair. That’s the cross Nigerians bear to regularise their stay in India. They don’t give us enough time to raise the money. But for other nationals like Zimbabweans, they get about eight months before their next visa expires,” the student said.
She added that the fee was not disclosed during visa processing in Nigeria and that many students only became aware of it after arriving in India.
The student further alleged that Indian police actively track Nigerians, whose visas had expired, leading to arrests, intimidation and deportation.
“When my visa was about to expire, I went to renew it, but was surprised to learn it was 10,000 rupees. After that, the police came looking for me because I had not renewed my visa.
“I have seen male students who were bullied and harassed because of this. They don’t believe we live by the rules. Anything that goes wrong is attributed to Nigerians, and it’s unfair.
“There are people who have faced serious injustice in the hands of these officers. Some were taken to deportation camps. I knew someone who was deported to Nigeria for this,” she said.
Drug crimes in India
No fewer than 50,000 Nigerians are believed to be resident in India.
Analysts believe that the Nigerian community is being targeted due to increased arrests of some people from the country for alleged drug trafficking.
In 2024, Indian agencies arrested 660 foreign nationals for drug-related crimes.
No fewer than 106 of the suspects were reported to be Nigerians, the second highest. Nepal was first on the list with 203 nationals.
Also, 2,356 Nigerians were deported by India between 2019 and 2024, with removals quadrupling from 339 in 2021 to 1,470 in the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
Nigerians are police informants – Diplomat
But a diplomat in India said some Nigerians were being used as informants by the Indian police.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, alleged that such people were usually induced with money.
“Fellow Nigerians report one another to the police when they have disputes. They become informants because the authorities give them a share. When Nigerians are arrested, the police extort money from them, and the informants take a cut. These practices put the country in a bad light,” the source said.
The source also urged Nigerians to comply with local laws.
The official added, “People should ask why Nigerians are being maltreated. What offence did they commit? You are in another country and must obey their laws. Some individuals have overstayed for years without valid visas. Once caught, there may be consequences.”
On the quarterly visa renewal, the official said the issue also affects Nigerian diplomats and called for reciprocal measures.
“As diplomats, our families renew visas yearly. It is an issue we have raised at the highest level, but nothing has been done. The best approach is reciprocity. We should ensure their families get similar terms, while we consider shorter durations for their students.”
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