A witness, Raman Saliu, who is also a partner at Super
Network Limited, the parent company of Super TV, said Usifo Ataga’s body was
seen with deep cuts on his neck to the back, on the stomach, and around the ribs.
Mr Saliu, a network engineer and programmer, told Yetunde
Adesanya, a judge at a Lagos High Court in TBS, that his friend of ten years
was killed like a “chicken.”
According to him, there were seven stab wounds on the
deceased’s body.
Chidinma Ojukwu, a 300-level Mass Communication student of
the University of Lagos, and two others are on trial over Mr Ataga’s murder.
The alleged murder took place at the Lekki Phase 1, area of
Lagos.
Testimony
Mr Saliu said he got a call from the deceased saying he had
blood pressure and he suggested some drugs to him and advised him to take a
rest.
He said they scheduled an executive meeting on Wednesday
around 2 p.m. on June 15, 2021, and he called him in the morning that an
assignment was completed but he got no response.
Mr Saliu said he later got a WhatsApp message from the
deceased saying “I saw your missed call, I took some drugs that have made me
sleeping.”
He said the English grammar was suspicious and couldn’t have
come from the deceased.
He said he sent him a screenshot of the task they had talked
about but his response was, “ok great.”
He said he wasn’t convinced that the message came from the
deceased because he would be excited over the task.
Mr Saliu said he contacted Mr Usifo’s driver and Personal
Assistant but they said they had not seen him.
He said he went to the deceased’s hang-out spots where they
had been together before his death and didn’t see him there.
Mr Saliu said he raised the alarm on June 16, adding that
the deceased phone was going through but nobody answered it.
Mr Saliu said the last message to the deceased was on June
16, at 10:30 a.m. which said “Bros where are you, I’m worried, My BP is
rising.” But the message was read and there was no response.
He said the following day, he got a call from Mr Ataga’s
wife, Brenda Ataga, asking for the deceased’s whereabouts.
He said they traced the deceased’s phone to Unilag while
noting that he got a phone call from the bank whom he had asked to help trace a
transaction that could help with a lead as to where the deceased could be.
The banker called and said Mr Ataga made a transaction on
Sunday and Monday to an Airbnb apartment (the short let apartment) and Sterling
Bank.
However, he said he learnt of Mr Ataga’s demise from Mrs
Ataga and on June 23, he got a call from the police that Ms Ojukwu had been
arrested with the recovery of the deceased’s phone and laptop.
This newspaper observed that the suspect was taken back to
prison in a white bus and not the regular prison van.
The judge adjourned the case to February 17 for the
continuation of trial.
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