One of the witnesses in the ongoing trial of Chidinma Ojukwu, the prime suspect in the murder of Super TV boss, Usifo Ataga has disclosed how his corpse was discovered 5 days after his death, being also his birthday.
Rotimi Albert, said the family and friends of the deceased searched for him for the entire 5 days until they got to the mortuary 5 days later.
He revealed this while giving evidence as the 4th prosecution witness before Justice Yetunde Adesanya at the Lagos High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square annex on Tuesday, 30th November.
Another witness, Robert who introduced himself as a long time schoolmate and family friend to late Usifo Ataga said that a mutual friend of theirs called him in the evening of June the 16th.
The friend asked Robert if he had seen or heard from the deceased as no one had heard from him since Sunday, the 13th of June.
He added that he kept calling the deceased’s phone on his birthday, the 17th of June but he did not pick. He then sent him a WhatsApp message which delivered.
According to Robert, “I was surprised when he didn’t return my calls nor reply my messages. I started calling other friends to ask if anyone had seen him, even his siblings abroad called me to ask about his whereabouts. I told them I was also worried.
“His wife and family were also looking for him because they were supposed to celebrate his birthday with I’m in Abuja.”
The witness added that Mrs Ataga went on to inform the police about her worries. He said that Ataga’s phone was tracked and found to have been used last at the University of Lagos guest house.
According to him, on June 17th, he and a mutual friend went there but didn’t find Mr Ataga’s vehicle at the guest house. He added that a phone tracker also indicated that the phone was used at the Alagomeji area, and that tracking became difficult because the movement kept changing.
“In the course of all these, we got a call that Usifo is deceased and in the mortuary. We, therefore, went to Panti police station, there we found out that the police had already visited the crime scene.
After going to the crime scene, the police told us to go to the mortuary to identify the body so we went and confirmed it was Usifo Ataga. At the mortuary, I observed that he was assaulted with multiple stab wounds on his neck, abdomen, his side and leg.
I also observed that his wrist had rope marks and deep indentations. That was how I got to know that my friend was deceased” witness said
Justice Adesanya has adjourned the case until the 13th of February, 2022 for the continuation of trial.
High Court of Lagos State is the highest court of law in Lagos State. It has two main branches, one in Lagos Island and one in Ikeja.
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