A preliminary police report on the “murder” of Super TV Chief Executive Officer, Usifo Ataga has revealed some actions taken by the prime suspect, Chidinma Ojukwu before and after the incident.
Chidinma, a 300-level Mass Communication student of the University of Lagos, had checked into a hotel with Ataga on June 15. However, the media mogul was found dead in the room on Wednesday, June 16.
Chidinama never reported the matter to the police or make any attempt until she was arrested by the police at her father’s residence on Akinwunmi Street, Alagomeji, Yaba, on Wednesday, June 23.
While being paraded by the police, Chidinma confessed to stabbing Ataga multiple times but claimed it was done because he forced sex on her after they had taken hard drugs.
The police also confirmed that Chidinma withdrew a sum of N380,000 from the victim’s account with his ATM card.
Items recovered from Chidinma included a Nigerian passport with No B50010434, a fake driving licence bearing ‘Mary Johnson’ with the suspect’s photograph, an Access Bank statement of account slip, a UBA (United Bank for Africa) ATM debit card bearing her name and a UNILAG identity card.
Now to the new report by the police.
The preliminary report showed that Chidinma was the one who booked the apartment where Ataga was found dead.
But that’s not just it. She used a pseudonym, “Jewel”, and a foreign number to book the short let apartment on Adebowale Oshin Street, Lekki Phase I, Lagos.
The report also indicated that Ojukwu made several calls to a particular phone number after Ataga’s body was discovered in the room on Wednesday, June 16.
However, the call didn’t go through despite several attempts.
The report added that she invited the late Ataga into the apartment on Tuesday, June 15, while the man was found dead around 1pm the following day.
Ataga was found dead by a worker of the hotel who wanted to clean the room.
The incident was then reported to the police by the operator of the facility, Mrs. Nkechi Mogbo.
The report read in part, “Mogbo reported that around 3 pm of June 16, 2021, she received a call from her security guard on Adebowale Oshin Street, Lekki Phase I where she has one flat being used as a short let apartment. She further stated that the security man informed her that one Jewel with a foreign phone number who rented the apartment invited one Usifo Ataga to the apartment yesterday (June 15) and that about 1pm of June 16 when the cleaner wanted to clean the room, he discovered that the door had been broken.
“When she (the cleaner) peeped into the room, she discovered that the said Ataga was lying in a pool of blood. All calls put across to the said Jewel to come back to the apartment proved abortive.”
However, the preliminary report was pointing towards “premeditated murder” but police noted that the investigation is still ongoing and appealed for calm from the public.
