IGP Transfers Usifo Ataga’s Murder Case, Suspect Chidinma To Abuja

By Tunde Serano On Aug 21, 2021

Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, has ordered the transfer of the case of the murdered Super TV Chief Executive Officer, Usifo Ataga, from Lagos to Abuja.

According to SaharaReporters, the IGP ordered that the case be taken up by Force Criminal Investigation Department, while the murder prime suspect, 21-year-old Chidinma Ojukwu, would also be brought to Abuja.

“IGP has approved the transfer of Usifo Ataga’s murder case to Abuja. It will be handled by the FCID,” a top source told the publication.

Ataga was killed in the Lekki area of the state, a few days to his 50th birthday, after which Lagos State Police Command arrested the 21-year-old undergraduate of University of Lagos, Chidinma Ojukwu, who was in a sexual relationship with Ataga for murder.

The suspect confessed to fatally stabbing the father of two but later retracted her statement.

Meanwhile, the latest development comes few days after family of the deceased alleged that Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, might be shielding the killers of their son, with the police’s suspicious handling of the matter.

They claimed that Chidinma, the prime suspect in Ataga’s murder, was arraigned in a Yaba Magistrate Court without the family being informed.

The family of the murdered Super TV CEO had last Sunday hired human rights’ lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, to ensure that justice was served for their slain son.

Ataga’s family in a letter to Ozekhome also accused the police of stifling efforts to ensure those behind the Super TV CEO murder were brought to book.

The family, in the letter, accused the Lagos CP of “attempting to protect the killers of Ataga.”

Ataga’s family also decried the alleged comfortable movement of Chidinma from prison to court and back to the prison, saying she was moved in an Uber ride without handcuffs.

There also alleged that the man who had claimed to be Chidinma’s father and was charged for obstructing police investigation was Chidinma’s “sugar daddy” and not her biological father.

They had faulted the N1million bail granted to Chidinma’s father and one Babalola Disu, another suspect in the case by the magistrate court.

The family had alleged that Disu was “highly suspected to have carried out the murder”.

Ataga’s family premised its suspicion on information they received to the effect that Disu’s short rental apartment was directly opposite the apartment where Ataga was killed.

The family, however, urged Ozekhome and his chambers to take up the case and see that justice is served through a very professional prosecution of all those involved in the crime.

Ozekhome also confirmed that he is now representing Ataga’s family

In a statement on Sunday, Ozekhome had said the bereaved family hired him “to protect and defend the interests of the Ataga family and his teeming friends, admirers, kinsmen, and business associates, to ensure that justice is duly served in the matter.”