By Christopher Oji
One year after the death of a Nigerian, based in the United Kingdom, Alanis Ogundipe, her father, Oladapo Ogundipe, has called on the UK government and security authorities to carry out thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death.
Alanis Ogundipe, 26, allegedly committed suicide by jumping into a moving train in Manchester, UK, but her father said he is suspecting a foul play.
At a press briefing, yesterday, in Ikeja, Lagos, father of the deceased wants the UK police to take drastic action, so as to unravel the reason she allegedly committed suicide.
The devastated Ogundipe said he has written to the UK police, but they have not done anything serious about the matter. He also said he equally wrote to the Nigeria High Commission in the UK, but one year after, the commission has still not responded to his letter. He said he strongly believed that his daughter was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, who she met in June 2022.
He said his daughter’s predicament started when her boyfriend allegedly infected her with a disease, Herpes, which the daughter saw as a stigma that should not be exposed to the public and decided to keep it a secret. Ogundipe said her daughter’s boyfriend, who discovered that she wanted to keep the disease a secret, cashed in on her fears and started threatening to expose her to the public.
“Her boyfriend, who did not stop at threatening her with the exposure of the herpes, also broke into her phone; got further information about her and started using the information he got from there to blackmail her. The constant blackmail of my daughter pushed her into depression and she started being traumatised. 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, so as to make her do it. He will first tell her it was a gift and later tell her it was a loan,” he said.
The traumatised Ogundipe further explained that when Alanis was expecting to collect the sum of £102,000 in May 2023 from home for a project, at the same time she was also expecting her new salary of £2,000 which 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 herself and her brother had also been notified on May 19, 2023, that they would be visiting Nigeria shortly.
Her boyfriend, who knew about these, broke into her phone without her consent and stole her bank statements and sensitive information, whilst she was asleep at 10 am, on May 28, 2023, in Manchester, with the intention of blackmailing Alanis and using 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 the 7th June 2023, when he reached out to me after Alanis’ death. Her boyfriend, Ryan, lied to the police in his witness statement on the 15th August, 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 terribly frightened on May 28, 2023 and promptly reported the Ogundipe), psychological attack to her mother, Josephine Dillon (also known as Josephine. 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 9pm, according to the officers who attended the scene, Ryan repeatedly rang Alanis’ phone. Again, according to the officers who attended Alanis flat, Ryan repeatedly rang Josephine’s mobile number. That was after Alanis had told him that she was ‘going to do it’ and he had failed to stop her after failing to acknowledge the pain she cried out that she was feeling in her body.
“I later advised Josephine on June 29, 2023, that if I ever found out that she or any family member were obstructing the police investigation, I would find it suspicious. In the course of getting justice for my late daughter, a coroner’s inquest into the cause of her death came up this month, May 9. And this was the point it became clear to me that it had been a conspiracy all the while.
“At the inquest, 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, which I was later allowed after insistence. The lawyer was also not in support of a question I planned to ask to prove that Leggetts, who was also in attendance, did not get the consent of my late daughter before breaking into her phone. Part of the questions included why he refused to tell the police the truth about his access to Alanis’ phone. I was vindicated by the outcome of the inquest,” he said.
The aggrieved father said he made allegations of murder and manslaughter against Ryan to the police in the UK because he allegedly inflicted emotional and psychological injury upon his daughter from August 1, 2022
Aside, the psychological trauma continued until May 28, 2023 when he allegedly infected her with a virus and also broke into her phone and stole her bank statements and sensitive information with the intention of blackmailing her. He said the blackmail continued until May 29, 2023, when she yielded to his demands and eventually died.
“As this suggests a coordinated effort to manipulate and harm Alanis, ultimately leading to her tragic death. 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,” he said.
Oladapo Ogundipe is calling on the Nigeria High Commission in UK and the UK government to compel the UK police to allow him cross examine Ryan, to ascertain the role he played that led to the death of his daughter. He also appealed to well meaning Nigerians, both home and in the diaspora, to support his appeal for the UK government to prosecute her daughter’s boyfriend for blackmail and breaking into her phone without her consent, and to really examine the accident scene, to ascertain if really it was an accident as claimed or outright murder.