A Lagos High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square has fixed 8th November for a trial-within-trial to determine whether it should admit the confessional statement allegedly made by murder suspect, Miss Chidinma Ojukwu, who has been standing trial for the death of the Chief Executive Officer of Super Tv, Usifo Michael Ataga.
Justice Yetunde Adesanya made the ruling following Ojukwu’s contention that she did not make the statements attributed to her voluntarily. Rather, she said, they were obtained from her by the police under duress and inducement.
Ojukwu, a 300-level Mass Communication student at the University of Lagos, is charged alongside her sister, Chioma Egbuchu, who is the third defendant; and the second defendant, Adedapo Quadri.
The suspects are also charged with stealing and forgery.
The defendants have been on trial since 12th October 2021.
According to the Lagos State Government which is prosecuting them, the murder took place on 15th June 2021 at a short-let apartment on 19, Adewale Oshin Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.
The defendants denied the charge.
At the resumed hearing of the case Thursday, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Mrs Adenike Oluwafemi led ninth prosecution witness, Mr Olusegun Bamidele, in evidence.
Bamidele, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, testified that Ojukwu allegedly transferred N5 million from Ataga’s account on 15th June 2021, the same day she allegedly stabbed him to death for demanding more sex – according to her alleged confession as recorded on video by the police while interrogating her.
The witness said that, while seeking the killer’s motive for the murder, the police obtained the deceased’s bank statement of account.
He said the statement revealed how Ojukwu, who was allegedly in possession of Ataga’s phone, carried out transactions on his bank account.
Bamidele said that Ojukwu used the deceased’s phone to transfer the N5 million from his account to another bank.
He said the transactions included transfers to herself; Nkechi Mogbo as payment for the short-let apartment, and airtime purchases, among others.
“On 16th June 2021, four transactions of N20,000 were made from the deceased’s account. On 17th June, another withdrawal of N20,000 was made five times and the remarks were ‘transfer between customers’.
“On the same 16th June, N50,000 was transferred to Nkechi Mogbo, another N11,200 was also transferred to Caprical Capital. On the same 16th June, another N50,000 was transferred from Ataga’s account to Mogbo and another N93,000 transferred from Ataga’s GTBank account to his Access Bank account.
“A transfer of N110,000.75 was debited from the deceased’s account on 18th June 2021.
“On 19th June 12021, a transfer of N20,000 was made four times; on that same day another transfer of N20,000 was made five times and it was through the USSD code”, Bamidele testified.
He added that on 13th June 2021, there was an internet transfer of N10,000 to Ojukwu, another N105,000 was also transferred to her as payment to Mogbo, the owner of the apartment.
When the prosecution sought to tender the written statements of the defendants, Ojukwu’s counsel Onwuka Egwu objected to the admissibility of the document.
He argued that she did not make the statements voluntarily. She said the statements were obtained by “oppression, inducement intimidation and under duress”.
Egwu prayed the court to “test the veracity of the voluntariness of the statements.”
The second defendant’s counsel Babatunde Busari did not object, neither did the third defendant’s counsel, Miss M. A. Abia-Bassey.
Responding, the prosecutor prayed the court to settle the argument by evaluating the statements and Ojukwu via a trial within trial.
