How Ataga’s Body Was Found – Police

On Thursday, Isiaka, the case’s Investigating Police Officer (IPO), told the Lagos State High Court at the Tafawa Balewa Square how the police discovered Ataga in a pool of blood at a service flat in the state’s Lekki neighborhood.
Chidinma Ojukwu, a 300-level Mass Communication student at the University of Lagos, is accused of killing Ataga.
Justice Yetunde Adesanya is trying Ojukwu and two others, Adedapo Quadri and Chioma Egbuchu, on nine charges.
While the undergraduate and Quadri are charged with eight crimes ranging from conspiracy to murder, forgery, and theft, Egbuchu is accused of taking an iPhone 7 from the late Super TV CEO.
At the resumed hearing on Thursday, Isiaka, while being led in evidence by the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, A. O. Oluwafemi told the court that he was on night duty on June 16, 2021, when the owner of the service apartment, Nkechi Mogbo, reported a case of murder at the Maroko Police Station.
He stated that following the report, the Divisional Police Officer and the Divisional Crime Officer went to the scene where the deceased was found in a pool of blood and his corpse deposited at the Yaba General Hospital’s morgue.
Isiaka said, “Mrs Nkechi Mogbo, in her statement to the police, said her security guard, one Abu, informed her that some people lodged at her facility at 19, Adewale Oshin Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, and when the cleaner went to clean the apartment, they discovered a dead body.
She said the security guard and the cleaner, after calling occupants of the apartment and there was no response, forced the door open and discovered that a man was lying down in a pool of blood.
“Based on the nature of the case, on June 17, 2021, the DPO said the case should be immediately transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Panti.
After the case file was transferred to Panti, a team of detectives from the homicide section of Panti asked me to follow them to the scene of the crime and when we got there, the apartment door was opened and we discovered that things were scattered in the apartment.
“The team, headed by a Chief Superintendent of Police from Panti, found some items from the travelling bag of the deceased at the apartment and picked them for investigation.
“At the morgue, the corpse was brought out in a stretcher. I discovered that there was blood on his back; the deceased was lying down facing up, that was when he was identified as Michael Ataga.”
Following the evidence of the IPO, Oluwafemi sought to tender the statement he (IPO) made at Panti before the court, but Egbuchu’s counsel, Babatunde Busari, objected to it on the grounds that it was an extrajudicial statement and therefore not admissible.
However, the other defence lawyers, Onwuka Egwu and O. A. Ogunsanya did not object to the tendering of the statement.
Justice Adesanya, in a short ruling, said the objection failed and overruled it, and adjourned the case till February 21 for the continuation of trial.