ATAGA: I WAS FORCED TO SIGN CONFESSIONAL STATEMENT– OJUKWU

Chidinma Ojukwu, the alleged killer of Super TV chief executive officer, Usifo Ataga, yesterday, told Justice Yetunde Adesanya of the Lagos State High Court sitting at Tafawa Balewa Square that she was tortured and forced to sign her extrajudicial statements by the police.

Chidinma, who was testifying in a trial within trial to determine the voluntariness of the confessional statements she made during the investigation of the case, claimed that she signed the statement under duress and because of threats made by investigators to implicate her family in the alleged crime.

The defendant specifically accused the investigating police officer, ASP Olusegun Bamidele of tearing the first two statements she wrote and forcing her to sign the one that was dictated to her by another member of the investigative team, assistant superintendent of police, Olufunke Madeyinlo.

She also alleged that she was then made to rehearse the statement and narrated the same to the commissioner of police.

Ojukwu was arraigned before the court alongside one Adedapo Quadri on an eight-count charge of murder, forgery and stealing.

The state also arraigned Chidinma’s sister, Chioma Egbuchu from whom the late Ataga’s iPhone 7, was said to have been recovered on one count of receiving stolen property.