A Chief Magistrate Court in Yaba, Lagos State, has remanded Miss Chidinma Ojukwu, the suspected killer of the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Mr. Usifo Ataga on Monday.
Chidinma, a 300 level student of the Mass Communication Department, University of Lagos, was remanded alongside one Adedayo Quadri for the first 30 days.
Magistrate Adeola Adedayo (Mrs.) remanded her for 30 days pending legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) of Lagos State.
Ojukwu, 21, was alleged to have murdered Ataga, in a service apartment in Lekki area of Lagos State.
The defendants were remanded following an application made by the Prosecuting Counsel, Mr. Cyril Ejioffor, from Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, SCIID, Yaba.
He said that the application was brought in pursuant to Section 264 (1) (2) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.
Ejioffor told the court that the grounds of the remand were stated on the remand form.
“The remand is to enable the DPP come up with legal advice. We pray for the remand of the defendants for the first 30 days in the first instance,” he said.
Dr. Babajide Martins, Director, Office of the Public Defender, (OPD), who represented the first defendant, (Chidinma), did not oppose the application. He told the court that he was just served with a copy of the remand application.
Martins stated that he “have not been able to go through it, my learned friend’s application is inevitable, I would have been happier, if I was obliged of the application earlier. The application will not be opposed, in principle.’’
Granting the application, Chief Magistrate Adedayo, said: “In the absence of any opposition the two defendants are hereby remanded for 30 days, for the first instance.”
She adjourned the case to September 5, 2021, for remand review and DPP’s legal advice.
Ojukwu, was arrested by the police on June 23, 2021. She had been in a romantic relationship with 50-year-old Ataga for about four months before the incident.
Following her parade by the police on June 24, the undergraduate said she and Ataga were “having fun” when an argument broke out and she stabbed him twice.
On June 29, she pleaded for forgiveness saying she was not ready to die and attributed her action to the influence of hard drugs and smoking.
Meanwhile things took a dramatic twist on July 13, 2021, when Chidinma recanted her statement.
In an interview she granted to the police media team, which was aired by Crime Fighter TV, a police sponsored programme, Ojukwu claimed that she walked into the room from an errand only to find Ataga stabbed, with blood everywhere and the apartment in shambles.
She claimed her earlier admission of stabbing Ataga to death was made under pressure and fear that people would not believe her.
She claimed that someone might have entered the apartment when she left to get the things they needed adding that the assassin scattered the place and left before her arrival.
