In what will come across as a really shocking development, a 21-year-old undergraduate of the University of Lagos who identified herself as Chidinma Adaora Ojukwu has narrated how she stabbed the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV and a director in Super Network Limited, a telecoms firm, Michael Usifo Ataga, to death in the Lekki area of Lagos State.
Mr Ataga, who resides in Banana Island, was reported missing on Sunday, June 13, by his family and friends after he didn’t return to his home and he also didn’t turn up at his Victoria Island office.
All efforts to reach Ataga, who would have turned 50 years old on June 18, proved abortive and this caused distress to his wife and children, who live in Abuja.
Unfortunately, his lifeless body was found on Friday morning, June 18, in a flat in Lekki phase 1 with multiple stab wounds in his neck, chest, and thigh.
It was also gathered that several withdrawals had been made from his account from the period when he got missing to when his corpse was found.
After a thorough investigation by the Lagos State Police, a female suspect was picked up in connection to the death of the CEO who is married to a manager in Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. Chidinma was arrested by the police at her parent’s residence in Alagomeji, Yaba area of Lagos, on Wednesday night.
According to PUNCH, she spoke at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters in Ikeja after she was paraded as a suspect by the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu.
At the police station, Chidinma, a 300-level student of Mass Communication, narrated what ensued between the CEO and herself.
According to Chidinma, she was introduced to the deceased by her friend four months ago and had been in a romantic relationship with him since then before the ugly incident.
She mentioned that on the day of the incident, she told her parents that she was going for an ushering job but went on to meet with the deceased at the Lekki phase 1 flat so they could have some fun.
The suspect told newsmen that while in the apartment, they were taking drugs called ”loud and SK” and that an argument ensued between them when she refused to have sex with him. She said she stabbed him twice before she fled the apartment.
In her words:
“We were in the lodge smoking. He was trying to make advances on me. I was tired and he became violent on it. I let him have his way. Towards afternoon, he ordered roofies. We took it together and ate food. He became high. I was still not happy with the first one (sex) that we had, so, I was staying on my own, smoking and drinking. He, too, was on his own.
“He came to me and I was like I am not happy with what he did. I was like, ‘You don’t help me, you don’t assist me with anything, you are just playing with me around’. He was like, ‘Take my ATM and withdraw what you want’.
“He later became violent trying to get to me and I was resisting and defending myself. At some point, he hit my head on the wall and I also retaliated.
“At some point, he was chasing me around the kitchen cabinet. I took a knife and stabbed his neck. I approached the door and he followed me. I stabbed him twice on the neck side. I threw the knife to the bed and he was going for it but I also went for it. He dragged the knife with me and it broke and he fell on the floor.”
The undergraduate also disclosed that after stabbing the late CEO, she withdrew N380,000 from his account using his ATM card.
While the owner of the rented apartment where the tragic incident took place had been arrested, Odumosu also said Ataga’s account had been blocked to prevent further withdrawals from it by those taking advantage of his untimely death to deplete the account.
