The Lagos State police command has revealed how its operatives tracked down and arrested Chidinma Ojukwu, 21-year-old students of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), who allegedly stabbed the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Michael Usifo Ataga, to death.
Muyiwa Adejobi, the command’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), in a statement on Friday, said the police deployed Information and Communication Technology to arrest the suspect.
The suspect was nabbed on Wednesday night at her parents’ residence on Akinwunmi Street, Alagomeji, Yaba area of Lagos.
It was reported that her father was also arrested, after he had resisted police operatives because he did not believe that his daughter committed any crime until she later confessed.
The 300-level Mass Communication student was later paraded on Thursday at the command headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos.
Ojukwu confessed to stabbing the 50-year-old Ataga to death on June 15, 2021.
The undergraduate said she had been in a romantic relationship with Ataga for about four months before the ugly incident occurred at a Short Service Apartment, located at No 19, Adewale Oshin Street, Lekki, Phase 1, Lagos.
Ojukwu had also said that she and Ataga were “having fun” when an argument broke out and she stabbed him twice after which she withdrew N380,000 from his account using his ATM card.
The suspect, who fled the scene, was, however, arrested later.
According to the police, items recovered from the suspect include: “Complimentary cards, Access Bank Statement of Account, one Nigerian Passport with No.B50010434 belonging to the suspect, one fake Drivers license bearing Mary Johnson with the suspect’s photograph, one National Identification Card bearing the suspect’s name, one UBA ATM debit card bearing the suspect’s name and one University of Lagos ID card bearing the suspect’s name.”
Adejobi, in the statement, said an Information and Communication Technology unit recently created by the commissioner of police in the state, Hakeem Odumosu, tracked the suspect, who used different SIM cards – both Nigerian and foreign ones.
The statement was titled, ‘Lagos Security: Police Go Tough On Armed Robbers, Miscreants’.
“The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, recently established ICT/Tracking Unit at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba-Lagos, to adopt scientific and forensic measures of unravelling crimes and criminality in Lagos State.
“The unit, named D23, headed by SP Kasumu Rilwan, a computer scientist, has been instrumental to the landmark achievements and many feats recorded by the command under the watch of CP Hakeem Odumosu, including the latest arrest of the prime suspect in the alleged murder of Mr Michael Usifo Ataga, one Chidimma Adaora Ojukwu on 23rd, June, 2021.
“Similarly, the Commissioner of Police recently created two Squads, the Special Squad and the Strike Team, at the Command Headquarters, Ikeja-Lagos, to complement the existing department and units of the command in combating crimes in the state. The new Squads, as well, have played many roles in suppressing and keeping criminals and hoodlums at bay in Lagos State,” the statement partly reads.
Meanwhile, Odumosu said “the case will be charged to court as soon as investigation is concluded.”
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