Ataga: How Police Threatened, Tortured Me, Compelled Me To Write False Statements – Chidinma Alleges
Chidinma Ojukwu, the previous University of Lagos scholar standing trial for the alleged homicide of Tremendous TV CEO, Michael Usifo Ataga, on Tuesday advised a Lagos Excessive Court docket that every one the statements she made throughout police interrogation had been false and made underneath coercion.
Testifying earlier than Justice Yetunde Adesanya on the Lagos State Excessive Court docket sitting at Tafawa Balewa Sq., Chidinma mentioned concern instilled in her by the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), Mr. Bamidele, compelled her to recite a scripted narrative.
Chidinma advised the courtroom she was arrested on June 23, 2021, and interrogated with out authorized illustration. “Due to the concern that Mr. Bamidele and his workforce put in me, I couldn’t say something opposite to the narration he requested me to inform the Commissioner of Police,” she mentioned.
She recounted how the IPO took her cellphone, accessed her contacts, and questioned her about her laptop computer, hashish use, and Ataga’s ATM card. When she denied involvement in suspicious withdrawals amounting to ₦5.38 million, Bamidele allegedly ordered her to rewrite her assertion.
“I mentioned my lawyer wasn’t current. He slapped me on the again and mentioned, ‘There’s no time,’” she mentioned.
Chidinma claimed she was too weak and disoriented to write down a brand new assertion. “My palms had been shaking. He collected the pen and started writing the assertion himself. Once I advised him the content material was false, he mentioned, ‘That will likely be your story. Higher comply.’”
Handcuffed to a chair, she mentioned she was compelled to memorise the assertion forward of a go to to the Commissioner of Police (CP). “He mentioned, ‘Take heed to me rigorously, don’t say in any other case to the CP in case you love your life.’”
She additionally mentioned Bamidele warned her to stay to the story when journalists questioned her. “He took me to an open subject. Inside a minute, journalists surrounded me. I mentioned what he advised me.”
Afterward, she mentioned she was taken to the DCP’s workplace the place one other video confession was recorded. “They put concealer on my face and made me rehearse utilizing a flip chart. We recorded a number of occasions till Bamidele permitted one.”
Later that night, Chidinma was taken to a different workplace by an officer named Oseni, the place she encountered two feminine officers, Funke and Bola.
She mentioned they compelled her to write down one other assertion and threatened her when she hesitated. “I mentioned I used to be hungry, and Bola advised me, ‘While you’re carried out, you’ll get meals.’ A male officer smashed my head on the desk.”
She claimed the second assertion was additionally dictated to her, and he or she signed it underneath strain.
“Nothing within the assertion is true,” she advised the courtroom. “Not even the half about shopping for meals from Blackbell Restaurant. He mentioned, ‘Please signal,’ and I did. Then I used to be taken again to the cell.”
Chidinma, together with Adedapo Quadri and her sister Chioma Egbuchu, is going through trial on a nine-count cost bordering on homicide, stealing, and forgery.
Justice Adesanya adjourned the case till Might 7, 2025, for continuation of trial.
