Chidinma Ojukwu, the suspect arrested in connection with the death of Michael Ataga, CEO of Super TV, has denied killing him.
Ataga was found dead days after checking into an apartment with the suspect in Lekki, Lagos.
Chidinma had fled the scene of the crime until she was arrested at her father’s house in Yaba, Lagos.
When she was paraded by the police in June, the 300 level student of mass communication at the University of Lagos had said she killed him while he was trying to force himself on her.
She had sought forgiveness, saying she did not want to die.
“I regret killing Mr Ataga. I don’t know what my future holds but I don’t want to die. Please, I don’t want to die because of this case. I have not killed before.”
“I totally regret everything I did and I am sorry. Mr Ataga’s family, I am deeply sorry for what I did. If I had my life back, I wouldn’t do anything like that. I am deeply sorry and I hope you forgive me,” Chidinma had said at the time.
But in a video which is currently in circulation, Chidinma said she knows nothing about Ataga’s death.
“I didn’t injure anybody. I don’t know who must have come into the apartment, and did that… I don’t know who that person is. I don’t know what happened. I did not kill him,” the suspect said.
In a statement released recently entitled: ‘Who will speak for Usifo Ataga?’ elder brother to the deceased, Dr. Isi Ataga, said: “Usifo died a horrific death. He was not stabbed two or even five times; he was stabbed multiple times. His hands were bound tightly and the marks were still all over his wrists, accompanied with evidence of torture and assault even as his corpse lay in the morgue.
“And no one in the entire building heard his screams because he was gagged. Let that sink in, he was bound, gagged and tortured!
“The now-viral video of the room with the deceased lying on the floor shows a room with blood-stained walls and floor, evidence of a ferocious struggle. One person could never have carried these out.”
