Chidinma’s Trial Is In Limbo For The Murder Of Ataga.
Due to the prosecution’s failure to react to her written address, the trial of Chidinma Ojukwu, the suspected murderer of Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Usifo Ataga, was unable to proceed yesterday.
A Lagos State High Court is hearing the case against the defendant, a University of Lagos undergrad accused of killing Ataga. Along with her sister Chioma Egbuchu and another person named Adedapo Quadri, she is also accused of stealing and forging documents. In order to adopt written addresses in a trial-within-a-trial it held to determine if the defendant’s statement at a police station was given willingly, the court had postponed on November 17, 2022, until January 11, 2023.
The defendant testified before the court that the police had smacked her and had her sign written statements. In his testimony during the trial-within-a-trial, Ojukwu said as much.
During her defense, the defendant claimed that Olufunke Madeyinlo and ASP Olusegun Bamidele forced her to sign documents against her will. She said that after ripping her testimony, Bamidele instructed her to read the police commissioner his own written statement.
The prosecution received Ojukwu’s written address last week, according to the prosecution’s attorney, Mr. T. E. Onilade, who spoke to the court during the resumed hearing on Wednesday.
The first defendant’s address was served on us during the holiday season, but we didn’t respond, according to Onilade, who finally got it last week.
The address was dated December 23, 2022, according to Ojukwu’s attorney, Mr. O. Okemezie, who also noted the existence of a move on notice and a seven-paragraph affidavit in support of the written address.
The case was postponed to February 13, 2023, to allow for the acceptance of the written addresses by Justice Yetunde Adesanya. On October 12, 2021, the defendants were charged with a total of nine counts by the Lagos State Government.
Ojukwu and Quadri are accused of committing crimes including conspiracy, murder, stabbing, forgery, creating false bank statements, and theft on up to eight counts. The ninth accusation against the third defendant, Egbuchu, is that he stole an iPhone 7 from the late Ataga.
On June 15, 2021, Ojukwu and Quadri are accused of planning and killing Ataga by repeatedly stabbing him in the neck and chest. By obtaining and fabricating bank statements of accounts purportedly created by the dead, the suspects are additionally charged with forgery.
