IBADAN, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – Chidinma Ojukwu, the University undergraduate standing trial for the alleged murder of Super TV CEO, Usifo Ataga, has confessed to the crime.
A Lagos High Court sitting at Tafawa Balewa Square on Tuesday, watched the video recording of the lifeless body of the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Usifo Ataga, allegedly murdered on 15 June, 2021.
The first defendant and her sister Chioma Egbuchu, alongside one Adedapo Quadri, are facing nine counts of charges including murder, conspiracy and stealing.
Ataga’s body was seen in the video lying on the ground facing up, with his hands spread.
He was wearing a white singlet and boxer’s shorts stained with blood.
His head was close to a wall at the short-service apartment where he was allegedly murdered.
There was blood on the floor, pillow and duvet on the bed in the room.
In the same Compact Disc, a video showing Ojukwu narrating how she murdered Ataga was played.
In the video, Ojukwu narrated that she met Ataga through a friend.
She said that, on 13 June, 2021, the deceased called her and asked her to get a place for them to stay, and she got the short let service apartment where the deceased died.
She said: “After I got the place on Sunday, we were smoking loud, drinking, watching movies.
“Then, I went to get food, the drug we were taking got finished and I ordered another one and went downstairs to get it from the delivery guy in the morning.”
The first defendant said the above-mentioned incident occurred on 14 June, 2021.
“Then, on Tuesday, we drank, smoke loud and I added Rophynol to his drink. We had sex, and I was on the bed and he was on a chair.
“Later, he started disturbing me for more sex. I was tired, and after struggling with him, he had his way and still wanted more.
“He was no longer himself, and I thought he was no more interested in sex, only for him to return to the bed to ask for more.
“I pushed him away which resulted in his hitting his head against a stool that had a glass, he had a cut on his leg and he became weak.”
Ojukwu said that she then took a knife and stabbed Ataga on the neck, ribs and stomach, so he would not be able to harm her.
“I tied his hands with a handkerchief. His blood was out and I was scared. I just packed everything, my clothes were also stained with blood, I just packed my things and left.
“I took the knife and handkerchief, and when I got home, I threw the knife and handkerchief away.
Michael was a friend. I didn’t know him that deeply, and we didn’t talk regularly,” she said in the video clip.
When she was asked in the video if she was assisted in killing the deceased, Ojukwu said: “There was nobody that assisted me, I did it alone.”
When asked why she didn’t call for help, she said: ”Obviously I was scared, that was why I left.”
She said that there was no motive for killing Ataga.
In the video, the ninth prosecution witness in the murder trial, DSP Olusegun Bamidele from the Intelligence and Tactical Unit of the State Criminal Investigating Department, Panti Yaba, was seen interrogating Ojukwu at Panti.
He also asked her why she was using a foreign phone number and the motive behind her hiding her phone number.
Ojukwu said that she already had a foreign number registered on social media which she used to chat with people.
Asked why the owner of the service apartment didn’t know her identity, she said: “She didn’t ask for my identification.
“If she had said that the place was not available I would have left for another place.”
Ojukwu responded to a question in the video about why she used Mary Johnson to open a bank account. She said that she was attempting to open an account number which got blocked.
On an Identification card she procured, Ojukwu said: “It was someone that did it and you can’t see his face.
“I don’t know the contact of the person. I was just going through the internet and I saw a contact to call.”
She also said in the video that she opened a domiciliary account for depositing dollars.
At this point, prosecution counsel, Adenike Oluwafemi, reminded the witness of his evidence on 10 May, when he said that he recovered some items from the defendant’s house.
Bamidele responded by listing the things he allegedly recovered from Ojukwu’s house.
He told Justice Yetunde Adesanya that he recovered a small pink purse containing two syringes, eight pieces of Rophynol tablets, two sanitary pads, a small perfume, jewelry, an iPhone belonging to first defendant, a notebook, a diary, and a HP laptop.