Chidinma recants, denies killing Ataga
[FILES] Chidinma Ojukwu, the suspect in the murder of late Usifo Ataga.
The prime suspect in the alleged murder of the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Usifo Ataga, Chidinma Ojukwu, yesterday denied killing the late Ataga.
Ojukwu had earlier in the video played before a Lagos High Court sitting at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) narrated how she drugged and stabbed Ataga to death.
But at the resumed watching of the recorded video footage of her confessional statement, Ojukwu denied killing Ataga.
In the video footage of the confessional statement, she said she doesn’t know who killed the deceased, noting that by the time she got back, she saw Ataga on the floor and she quickly picked up her things and left because she was scared.
She said: “ I don’t know who entered, I just picked my things and left because I was scared.”
On October 11, 2022, when the video footage was first played showing the lifeless body of Ataga and later Ojukwu’s confession, she had said in the video that she killed the deceased on her own. She said, nobody assisted her, that she did it alone.
Ojukwu, while being interrogated, yesterday, in the video was asked why she denied knowing the deceased, she said she didn’t say so, but that she didn’t kill him.
She said: “I did not say that I didn’t know him, I said I did not kill him, I cannot kill somebody. I don’t know who came in after I left the room when I came back I saw him bleeding I had to leave because I was scared, I did not kill him, I don’t know who killed him.”
The ninth prosecution witness, DSP Olusegun Bamidele from the Intelligence and Tactical Unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) Panti, Yaba, was led in evidence by Lagos State prosecuting counsel, Mr. Yusuf Sule.
After the video stopped playing, Bamidele continued with the narration of how the handwritten statement of Ojukwu (the first defendant) was taken and how the second and third defendants were arrested.
Bamidele recounted that after the arrest of the first defendant, on June 23, 2021, her written statement was recorded on June 24.
After a long hour of the proceeding, the trial judge, Yetunde Adesanya adjourned further hearing to October 20, 2022.
Ojukwu, who claimed to be an undergraduate of the University of Lagos was arraigned along with her sister, Chioma Egbuchu and Adedapo Quadri.
They were alleged to have conspired and murdered Ataga on June 15, 2021, by stabbing him several times with a knife on the neck and chest at 19, Adewale Oshin Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.
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