The state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, had earlier said the 21-year-old undergraduate was tracked for 48 hours and was arrested at her parent’s residence in the Yaba area of the state on Wednesday.
He stated that casual workers cleaning the building, where the incident took place, discovered Ataga’s remains in the service apartment.
Odumosu said, “The victim, one Usifo Michael Ataga, happened to operate a media house. The lady, Chidinma Ojukwu, 21, a 300-level Mass Communication student of the University of Lagos, checked into the service apartment in Lekki with the man on a Sunday.
“They were there together as friends, but on Tuesday, she departed and left the man inside. So, when the man did not come out on Tuesday and Wednesday, those who were evacuating the trash bins went in to do their normal duty and discovered that the door to the apartment was half-opened.
“When they entered, Ataga was found on the floor in a pool of blood. He wore only his pair of boxers. So, we started our investigation and we were able to track the prime suspect and got her arrested. She has confessed to the crime.
“She said the drugs and alcohol that both of them took got them high and they were trying to have fun, but she resisted and the man insisted on having his way and that led to the fracas. She reached out for the kitchen knife and stabbed the man twice in the neck and once in the stomach. After he died, she took his belongings and fled.”
Chidinma told PUNCH Metro that Ataga became violent after she turned down his request for more sex, adding that she stabbed him under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
She said, “I checked for the place we lodged in online on Sunday and sent the details to him and he paid. On Monday, we were together drinking and smoking, we had fun and so I went to get food. On Tuesday, he was trying to make advances at me, but I was tired and he became violent and forced his way and I gave in.
“In the afternoon, we smoked and ate. We became high and I wasn’t happy with the first round of sex; so, I was on my own smoking, drinking, and eating my food when he came to me, while I was watching a movie.
“I told him I was not happy with what he did the first time. I told him he was not assisting me with anything but was playing around with me. He told me to take his ATM card and withdraw any amount I wanted and gave me the PIN, but I told him that was not what I meant.
“So, he became violent; I was defending myself and at some point, he hit my head on the wall and I retaliated. He was choking me and I was on the kitchen cabinet, so I stretched out and grabbed a knife and stabbed him twice in the neck and once in the stomach.”
When Ataga became weak, Chidinma said she fled the apartment and withdrew money from his account for her school fees.
She said, “We smoked SK and Loud. While he was lying there, I changed my cloth, looked for the key from where he kept it and left the room. When I left, I didn’t reach out to anybody. I didn’t feel good about what I did.
“I withdrew N380,000 and not N5m from his account. I feel a lot of remorse. I wanted to use the money I withdrew to pay my school fees. I felt disappointed when the police arrested me at my parents’ house and it was when I was arrested around 10 pm that my parents got to know about the incident.
“I live with my parents; I left home on Sunday and told them that I was going for ushering job. I used the foreign number I generated in texting the owner of the apartment.”
Exhibits recovered from Chidinma include a driving license, complimentary cards, Access Bank’s statement of account, a Nigerian passport with number B50010434 belonging to the suspect, one fake driving license bearing Mary Johnson with the suspect’s photograph, one National Identification card bearing the suspect’s name, UBA Automated Teller Machine debit card bearing the suspect’s name and a University of Lagos ID card in her name.
