Chidinma Ojukwu makes U-turn, denies killing Usifo Ataga
University of Lagos student, Chidinma Ojukwu, accused of killing the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Usifo Ataga, has denied killing the deceased in a confessional video that was played before Justice Yetunde Adesanya of the Lagos State High Court sitting at Tafawa Balewa Square on Tuesday, October 18.
This was her claim when the court resumed watching of the recorded video footage of the confessional statement of the prime suspect.
In the video recording played before the court, chidinma denied knowledge of who killed the deceased. According to her, she went out on the said day and by the time she returned, she saw Ataga on the floor and she quickly picked her things and left because she was scared.
“I don’t know who entered I just picked my things and left because I was scared.”she said
This is contrary to her confession when the video showing the lifeless body of Ataga was earlier played at the last proceedings on October 11, 2022, where she said that she killed the deceased on her own.
“There was nobody that assisted me, I did it alone.”she said in the video
While being interrogated in the video, Chidinma was asked why she denied knowing the deceased, and she said she didn’t deny knowing Ataga but that she didn’t kill him.
“I did not say that I didn’t know him, I said I did not kill him, I can not kill somebody.”she said
When a member of the team that interrogated her asked why she said the blood stains on her clothes were her period, she kept saying she 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 suspect was heard saying in the video that when she saw him in the pool of his blood she left him instead of calling for help because she was scared.
When asked why she ordered for Loud and Rophynol, the defendant responded that it was the deceased that ordered them and that she doesn’t know where he ordered them from.
Chidinma was also asked why she took the deceased’s two iPhones and Mac Laptop, and she replied claiming they were her things so she picked them and left because she was scared.
The ninth prosecution witness DSP Olusegun Bamidele from the Intelligence and Tactical Unit of the State Criminal Investigating Department Panti Yaba, while being led in evidence by the Lagos State prosecuting counsel, Yusuf Sule, gave information of how the handwritten statement of the first defendant was taken and how the second and third defendants were arrested shortly after the video stopped playing.
The investigating Police officer said that after the arrest of the first defendant, on June 23, 2021, her written statement was recorded on June 24.