…Says She Started Smoking When She Gained Admission To UNILAG
With the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Super TV’s Chief Executive Officer, Usifo Ataga, still proceeding, the key suspect, Chidinma Ojukwu, told newsmen in an interview that she does not want to die over the matter.
“I regret killing Mr Ataga,” the University of Lagos undergraduate stated amid cries. I’m not sure what my plans are for the future, but I don’t want to die. Please, I don’t want to die as a result of this situation. I’ve never killed somebody before.
“I was merely trying to keep my composure while answering questions during the procession, not that I’m not sorry.” Everything I did was completely regrettable, and I apologize. I sincerely apologize to Mr. Ataga’s family 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 and Ataga were reportedly lodged in a service apartment in Lagos State’s Lekki district, where the latter’s body was discovered the next day in the room and the former escaped, sparking suspicions of her involvement in his killing.
According to the police, they pursued her and found her at her father’s home in Alagomeji, Yaba.
Chidinma said that she was under the influence of strong narcotics and alcohol when she was arrested.
Chidinma’s parents divorced when she was two years old, and she moved in with her uncle, Chijioke Obi, in Lagos’ Mushin neighborhood.
She went on to say that one of her early dreams was to be a musician or an actor.
The suspect stated, “My role models were Tiwa Savage, Beyonce, Rihanna, Genevieve, and Regina Hall. I schooled in Johnson Primary School and also a government primary school in Mushin. I later went to Sidman College in Sabo, Yaba. I was two-year-old when my parents separated, I was little, so while I was growing up, I stayed with my uncle, Mr Chijioke Obi, in Mushin. I don’t know if he bears Izu, but it was my uncle that trained me.”
Upon completion of secondary school education, the suspect said she gained admission to study Mass Communication at the University of Lagos.
Asked about her assumed drug-induced lifestyle, Chidinma said, “I started smoking after I got into UNILAG.”
She also confirmed she’s the person in a trending video showing a lady puffing out cigarette smoke while soft music plays in the background.
She stated, “I am the one smoking in the trending video. I started smoking a few years ago. Old-time friends introduced me to it and we don’t talk anymore. Everything started after I entered UNILAG, but not actually when I am in school, it could be other places. But I am not the one in the other video (dissociating herself from another trending video showing a lady exhibiting her butt).”
On her relationship with Ataga, Chidinma described him as just a friend she met a few months back, faulting claims that he neither took hard drugs nor alcohol.
Narrating some of the moments she spent with the deceased, she said, “Mr Ataga was a friend and I don’t know how to elaborate more. He has not shown me pictures of his family but he sometimes acts like he was married and not that he is married (sic). I have met him up to four or five times; he takes drugs and drinks alcohol. It is not that I am trying to put anything together.’’
Speaking while being paraded by the police, Chidinma said she met the late Ataga about four months ago. Chidinma also said that she and Ataga were “having fun” when an argument broke out and she stabbed him twice after which she withdrew N380, 000 from his account using his ATM card.
The police had also disclosed that an Information and Communication Technology unit recently created by the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, tracked the suspect, who used different SIM cards– both Nigerian and foreign ones.
