Chidinma said she stabbed Ataga several times – Police investigator tells court

 

A Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) serving with the homicide department of the State Criminal Investigating Department (SCID) Yaba, Olusegun Bamidele, told a Lagos State High Court sitting at Tafawa Balewa Square that Chidinma Ojukwu confessed to stabbing the late Chief Executive Officer of SuperTV, Usifo Ataga in the neck several times without counting.

Ojukwu, a 300-level, Mass Communication student of the University of Lagos (Unilag), is facing trial for the offence alongside her sister, Chioma Egbuchu and one Adedapo Quadri.

The police officer led in evidence by the Lagos State’s Deputy Director of Public Prosecution, Adenike Oluwafemi, told the court how investigations revealed where the late Usifo Ataga and Chidinma might have met before arriving at the crime scene.

Bamidele said, “While I was investigating into the background, I and a friend of Usifo went to Angel Villa Hotel in Lekki. We approached the owner of the hotel and related the story to him. Luckily the hotel had a CCTV which revealed the presence of the deceased and Chidinma at the hotel”.

“After we tracked her to her home in Alagomeji and brought her to the DCP’s office, she was asked about her relationship with the deceased. She denied initially and this prompted us to deploy the CCTV. She then agreed that she is the Chidinma Adaora Ojukwu we were looking for”.

“We then took her in company of her foster father, one Onoh Ojukwu, back to the house in Alagomeji where we initially arrested her. We conducted a search of the house in their presence”.

The search, the officer said, yielded a maroon-coloured cloth worn by Chidinma the day Ataga was murdered.

He said: “The cloth was stained with blood. Then Onoh Ojukwu shouted: “Chidinma, you have killed me, you have done something wrong outside. Chidinma was also crying. We also recovered the black/blue long sleeved gown she wore when she left the apartment in Lekki. This further established that she has something to do with the deceased.”