A Lagos High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square, on Tuesday, continued the trial of Chidinma Ojukwu, who was alleged to have killed the Chief Executive Officer of Super Tv, Usifo Ataga.
Ojukwu, an undergraduate of the University of Lagos, Akoka, was arraigned alongside Adedapo Quadri and Chioma Egbuchu on October 12, 2021, on nine counts over the alleged murder of Ataga.
The court resumed watching the recorded video footage showing the confessional statement of Ojukwu before Justice Yetunde Adesanya.
In the new video, Chidinma refutes the claim that she killed the deceased, which she made in one of the earlier recorded recordings aired at the most recent court hearing before Justice Yetunde Adesanya.
Chidinma dissociated herself from her prior narrative in which she described how she had done the offence in the new video.
In the new recording, she asserted that she was unaware of the deceased’s killer because she had given him space to leave on the Tuesday before his death.
She also asserted that when she returned, she discovered Ataga’s lifeless body on the floor, panicked, gathered her belongings, and fled out of fear.
She said, “I don’t know who entered I just picked my things and left because I was scared.”
Ataga’s dead body was initially shown on the court screen on the last adjourned date on October 11, 2022, when the first video footage was presented, and Chidinmawho was later seen in the film telling police officials how she had killed the victim on her own.
In the video, she said, “There was nobody that assisted me, I did it alone.”
Attorney for Chidinma C.C. Ezebube had objected the showing and inclusion of the film. The judge rejected his argument and now accepts both tapes as evidence despite the fact that he had claimed before the court that his client had been coerced into recording the initial confessional video.
When Chidinma was questioned in the new video, she replied she hadn’t said so but added that she hadn’t killed the deceased when asked why she had initially denied knowing the deceased.
“I did not say that I didn’t know him, I said I did not kill him, I can not 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.”
Asked why she did not call for help when she saw him in a pool of his blood, and she responded that it was because she was scared.
She was also asked why she ordered Loud smoke and Rophynol, the defendant answered that it was the deceased that ordered it and that she doesn’t know where he ordered it from as she just went to pick it up.
The defendant was also asked why she picked the deceased’s two iPhones and Mac laptops, she said she just picked them because they were among her things and left because she was scared.
After watching the video, the court also listened to more testimony from the ninth prosecution witness, DSP Olusegun Bamidele from the Intelligence and Tactical Unit of the State Criminal Investigating Department Panti Yaba.
Bamidele said that after the arrest of the first defendant, on June 23, 2021, her written statement was recorded on June 24.
He said, “She started writing by herself, but because her handwriting wasn’t legible I told her that she should ensure that her writing is legible or write in capital letters.
“It was at that point that she said I should write for her and she confessed to killing the deceased.
“She mentioned how she killed Michael Usifo Ataga and went away with the knife, phones and Mac book laptop.
“We then took the first defendant to the computer village with her laptop and we located the phone hub.
“I and my OC went and we met one Yomi, we invited him to our office and initially he insisted on knowing what happened so I hinted to him then when he came to our office, we gave him the whole details.
“He said it was a few days ago that the first defendant came to sell the laptop to them, and it was one of his colleagues Ifeoluwa Oluwo that they did the transactions together.
“That was how the MacBook was recovered and the first defendant confessed that she was the one who sold the laptop to them.
“On that same June 24, I remember she mentioned one DG, that he assisted her in getting ID card, driver’s license, and Access Bank ATM, among others but that she doesn’t know his full name, but only speak with him on phone.
“I now said ok, assist us in this investigation so that we can get this DG, she said she doesn’t know the house, and this prompted us to bring the tracking team”.
“In the course of the investigation we studied her call logs very well we noticed that there was a frequent call log with a particular number between June 15, 17, 18 and 21, the tracker led to the arrest of the 2nd defendant.
“The team traced the 2nd defendant to Surulere before he was arrested. At his arrest, he threw away his phone through the window and also attempted to jump through the window but he was held by the waist.
“Four other phones were recovered from him, two small-size itel phones and two Tecno phones.
“Eventually when he was brought to our office I called him DG, he said his name was not DG, then I confronted him about who is Chidinma, and he narrated how he met Chidinma.
“He said he met Chidinma through a friend called Sam, who was her ex-boyfriend. He also said that he is capable of getting an international passport, driver’s license, a statement from banks etc.
“The second defendant said that he got Chidinma’s number from Sam and after conversations, he visited her at choice places at Sabo Yaba.
“Along the line, he said there was a particular day during the week when Chidinma called him and requested that he gets her Loud smoke and Rophynol, he collected the money and went to the Shitta area of Surulere and got the Rophynol from the Mallam in that area.
“He said he remembered sending it to the first defendant while she was at Lekki, through a dispatch rider, he told me that he supplied her two or three times in Lekki, with Loud smoke and Rophynol.
“He said on one of the occasions he called the first defendant when the dispatch rider got to Lekki and she went to collect it.”
As for the 3rd defendant, the witness said was arrested through the help of the foster father of Chidinma, Onoh Ojukwu and their uncle, Mr Obi alongside their mother.
He said the 3rd defendant narrated that the iPhone was gifted to her by Chidinma and she had questioned the first defendant about where she got the phone from and she said it was one of her boyfriends that gave her.
The case has been adjourned till October 20, for the continuation of trial.
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