Chidinma Ojukwu, the alleged murder suspect of Super TV Chief Executive Officer, Usifo Ataga on Thursday, told a Lagos State High Court sitting in Tafawa Balewa Square, that the two statements she wrote were torn and she was forced to sign the one that ASP Olusegun Bamidele wrote and the one that was dictated to her by Olufunke Madeyinlo.
Chidinma who testified in her trial within trial as defence witness one (DW1), told Justice Yetunde Adesanya that Bamidele asked her to rehearse the statement he had written and narrate it to the Commissioner of Police.
The 300-level Mass Communication undergraduate, of the University of Lagos, is standing trial over the alleged murder of Ataga.
She is also charged with stealing and forgery alongside one Adedapo Quadri and her sister, Chioma Egbuchu.
At the resumed hearing of the matter on Thursday, the witness said that before she was taken to the CP’s office at Ikeja, her hands were handcuffed on June 23, to the chair she sat until the next morning on June 24, when she was brought out of the interrogation room and taken to Ikeja.
Chidinma who was led in evidence in the trial within trial by her counsel Mr Onwunka Egwu entered the witness box at exactly 9:56 am.
She narrated to the court that on June 23, 2021, she was in her room at their house at No 47 Akinwunmi Street Alagomeji Yaba, when her 10-year-old little sister went to inform her that there were men in the sitting room asking after her.
The witness said that she came out of the room into the sitting room and then greeted them, they then asked if she was Chidinma and she answered yes.
According to her, they asked me where is Mr Ataga’s phone and his Range Rover vehicle, I said I don’t know.
“Immediately my little sister went to call my Dad (her Foster Father Onoh Ojukwu), and my Dad came out and asked please who are you? They said they were policemen, he asked from they said from Panti police station that they came to arrest me and to search the house or I should go in and bring the phone. I said I don’t know where the phone and car is.
” One of the policemen raised his hand and slapped me and my Dad said you can not slap my daughter in my house and the policemen tried to enter the room from the passage,” she said.
However, the Deputy Director of Public Prosecution Adenike Oluwafemi objected and said she was giving evidence of the case instead of evidence on how her statement was taken.
Justice Adesanya then asked Chidinma’s counsel to guide her.
After the objection, Chidinma stated that she was handcuffed and taken away from their sitting room into the police vehicle.
She said, ” When I was entering the vehicle, I told my Dad to call my lawyer, our family lawyer Mr Egwu.
“At the station, I entered the DCP’s office Razak Oseni, he was asking me questions along with other policemen then my Dad came and the DCP told my Dad to stop and allow his men do their job.
“We went back to my house and then came back to the DCP’s office and he started questioning me and then I told him that I don’t know anything about the death of Mr Ataga, that was when they made the video that was played in court.
” The DCP said I should make my statement then the IPO, Bamidele took me to the interrogating room with Mr Chris, and then gave me a blank statement form and asked me to write what happened.
” I started writing then he (Bamidele) took my left hand and handcuffed it to the chair. I wrote what I said at the DCP’s office, in the middle of writing the statement Mr Bamidele took the statement from me and read through it and said this is not what happened.”
