By Onyinyechi Ugwoke
Second Witness, Short-Let Apartment Security man, Abubakar Mohammed tells court Chidinma Ojukwu allegedly used a private number to call him, to check if Usifo Ataga Range Rover car is still packed at the Short-Let apartment where she allegedly murdered him, after the deceased body was found.
Chidinma, a 300-level Mass Communication student of the University of Lagos, was accused of killing Ataga. The undergraduate and two others, Adedapo Quadri and Chioma Egbuchu, are undergoing trial before Justice Yetunde Adesanya of the Lagos State High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos State.
Chidinma’s trial which continued on Tuesday had a second witness, the security man at the Short-Let apartment where she and Usifo Ataga lodged, who after being sworn on oath, testified against Chidinma, narrating how the prime suspect arrived the apartment was presented by the prosecution counsel, Mrs. Adeyemi.
Speaking in Pidgin language, the witness said, she came in with Uber ride, alighting at the front of his gate, asked if it was Number 19, if his name is Abu and was called by his madam that she will be coming to check out the apartment, which he replied, yes. She further requested to see the apartment.
He said, he showed her the room which was a studio apartment, and after being called by his madam that he could hand over the keys to her, gave her the keys, telling her his name again, gave his phone number to her to call, should water stop running or there is power outage.
“In the evening, at about 10:30p.m in the night, a man came with a dark coloured Range Rover, while I was discussing with the man on where to park, the lady came outside the gate and said, Stop, he is my person.”
“Trying to open the gate, the man asked me if there was any shop selling water and told him that there was no shop opened at that time. He took the lady out and they stayed out till 11:30p.m to 12a.m in the midnight.”
“She came outside the gate and asked me to open the gate for the man to park inside the compound. After parking, he opened the boot, took out a pack of Nestle water, when I offered to carry it, he said, it was fine and carrying the water, went to the apartment with the first defendant.”
When asked by the Prosecution counsel, how many days, they stayed at the apartment, Abubakar replied, “Sunday to Tuesday night when she left at about 8p.m in a Uber ride.”
When asked, On the day she left, was there anything else that happened. He replied, “Nothing happened, I was outside till 11:30p.m. My neighbour asked, if I was not going to sleep and I told him, I was waiting for my customer, if she will be coming back.”
When asked, When he waited for her and she did not come back, what did he do.
He replied, “I went inside, locked my gate with my padlock and went to sleep.”
The prosecution counsel asked the security man, Between the time she was in the apartment, did you have any moments with her.
Abubakar said, “She just calls him either to start the generator or pump water but she uses a private number.
When asked if there was a time, she did not hide her number, he replied, “Yes, there was a night, at 2a.m, NEPA took the light. Sometimes, I do not start the generator quickly because they bring it back immediately. I was inside my room, NEPA took the light and someone called me with a known number at about 2 to 2:15a.m. When I saw the number, I quickly said, hello and she cuts the call. Soon after, the number cut the call, her private number called me.”
“When I saw the number, I knew it was her calling, so I didn’t pick, I just opened the door and went to start the generator. Before I enter the room, the light came back as i expected, so I turned off the generator and did the change over.”
Narrating how the dead body of Mr Usifo Ataga was found, Abubakar said, “the LAWMA bus parked outside the gate, and I asked my colleague, the cleaner, Confidence to go and knock on every apartment for dirty, that the dustbin bus is around. She came back while i was packing the dustbin outside into the LAWMA bus with five empty plastics of bottle water, saying the studio apartment was opened. I went alone to the studio apartment and knocked but got no response then when I tried pushing the door opened, there was a chair behind the door which was not in its proper position. When I peeped, i saw the dead body of the man that came in with the lady on the floor. I went back to Confidence to inquire if she saw anything and she said, No. So I took her to the studio apartment and showed her the dead body.
At the point of calling my Madam (Mrs Mogbo), she called for another issue about a lodger whose payment has expired and would be leaving by 12:30p.m. When she was done, I told her, there was a problem, that someone died in the studio apartment and she told me, she was coming.”
Abubakar said following Mrs Mogbo’s report to the police, Ataga’s body was evacuated from the room and they were all called in for interrogation by the police, adding that Ataga’s family came to the apartment the day after the body was found, but he refused them access, saying they had to call his ‘madam’ first.
Following his instincts, Abubakar said, he recorded his conversation with Chidinma, who called him on Thursday at 6p.m with a private number to confirm if the deceased Range Rover was still parked at the murder scene. “I said, ‘why are you calling me with a private number?’, she said sorry. She said ‘that jeep, is it around?’ I asked her which jeep? She said the black Range Rover, that my oga motor”
“I asked her why she left on Tuesday night and never came back, she said she went for a meeting and saying stuffs of buying foods and hungry. I asked her what about the man, she said the man is fine.“
I asked what time she was coming back but she said she was coming. I then asked her to use her phone number to call me and she said okay,” he said.
Abubakar told the court that, he has been visiting the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, from the week of the incident to the following week for interrogation over the matter and was held for a day.
When asked what he did with the number that called him by 2a.m before the private number. He said, “I searched my phone to look for the phone number that called me around 2a.m. I put the number on my WhatsApp and changed my profile picture to President Muhammad Buhari. I saw the lady’s picture and I screenshot it. Then, I sent her a message”
Abubakar said that he sent the number and picture to the Short-Let apartment owner, who then forwarded it to the police officers at Panti and it was on Wednesday that the police tracked the number and Chidinma was arrested. The first defendant’s counsel, Onwka Egwu,cross-examined Mohammed following his testimony.
The judge adjourned the matter till November 17, for continuation of trial.
