Why I killed Ataga – Chidinma confesses

The Lagos High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square yesterday watched the chilling footage of Chidinma Ojukwu confessing to stabbing to death the Chief Executive Officer of SuperTV, Usifo Michael Ataga, all by herself.

It also viewed the grim footage of Ataga’s body recorded shortly after he was found in a Lagos short-let apartment apartment.

Miss Ojukwu, a 300-level, Mass Communication student of the University of Lagos, is the prime suspect in Ataga’s murder.

She is standing trial for the alleged offence alongside her sister and third defendant Chioma Egbuchu, and second defendant Adedapo Quadri.

They have been on trial since October 12, 2021, when they were arraigned at the high court before Justice Yetunde Adesanya.

According to the Lagos State Government which is prosecuting them, the alleged murder took place on June 15, 2021, at 19, Adewale Oshin Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.

At the resumption of proceedings yesterday the prosecution played the video recording from a Compact Disc (CD) on a large screen in the courtroom.

It showed Ataga lying on the floor facing up with his hands spread open wearing a white singlet and boxers shorts stained with blood. His head was close to the wall and there was blood on the floor on his right hand side.

The video also showed Ojukwu narrating how she killed Ataga, during interrogation by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Olusegun Bamidele from the Intelligence and Tactical Unit of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Panti, Yaba.

The defendant said she met Ataga through a friend and they started speaking to each other and that on June 13, 2021, he asked her to look for a place for them to stay, so she got the short-let apartment where they ate, drank, took drugs and where he was killed.

Ojukwu said, “After I got the place on Sunday, we were smoking Loud, drinking, watching movies, and 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; that was on June 14, 2021.

“Then on Tuesday, we drank and smoked Loud and I added Rophynol to his drink and we had sex. I was on the bed and he was on the chair. Then later he started disturbing me for more sex. I was tired and after struggling with him, he had his way and still wanted more.

“I thought he was no more interested in sex, only for him to return to the bed to ask for more sex. I pushed him away, which resulted in him hitting his head against a stool that had a glass. He had a cut on his leg and he became weak.

“I got a knife and stabbed him in the neck, ribs and stomach so that he would not be able to harm me. I tied his hands with 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.

“Michael (Ataga) was a friend, that we just talked, I didn’t know him that deep and we did not talk regularly.”

Asked in the video if she was assisted in killing Ataga, Ojukwu said, “There was nobody that assisted me, I did it alone.”