Trial of alleged killer of Super TV CEO: Family smells foul play, hires fiery lawyer, Ozekhome to ensure fair judgement

...insists owner of apartment where Usifo died was treated with kid gloves by police ...accuses police of unprofessionalism ... decries Chidinma alleged VIP treatment By Emman Ovuakporie   The family of Late Mr Michael Usifo Ataga who was brutally murdered on the 15th of June, 2021, apparently smelling a foul play on the role the Nigerian police has played, hired a constitutional lawyer, Mike Ozekhome to ensure a fair judgement is delivered. TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) reports the family has briefed Ozekhome to protect and defend the interests of the Ataga family and his teeming friends, admirers, kinsmen, and business associates, to ensure that justice is duly served in the matter, and that justice is not only done, but manifestly seen by the public to have been done. The Ataga family, in its instruction letter to Chief Ozekhome, decried the low level of professionalism exhibited so far by the Police in bringing to book and prosecuting professionally, the perpetrators of this heinous crime that led to Ataga’s unprovoked and cold blooded murder. Only few days ago, the family of late Ataga had accused the Lagos State Police Commissioner, Hakeem Odumosu, of being complicit in an alleged attempt to protect the killers of Ataga. The family said that they were shocked that the prosecution of the 21-year old prime suspect in Ataga’s murder, one Chidinma Ojukwu of the Mass Communicarion Department, University of Lagos, was arraigned at a Chief Magistrate Court, Yaba, without even being informed about the arraignment coming up. The family had also revealed that one Babalola Disu, who was arraigned for allegedly preventing the Police from performing their duties and failing to report a crime to the Police, is “highly suspected to have carried out the murder”. The family premised its suspicion on information they received to the effect that Disu’s short rental apartment was directly opposite the apartment where Ataga was killed. The family narrated how the said Disu had asked that the carpenter of Air BnB should be called upon to fix his door, only for the carpenter to be told later that it was actually Usifo’s door that was broken. The family had also accused the Lagos State Police Commissioner, Mr Odumosu, of being complicit in bungling the case of Ataga’s murder through his lack of depth, thoroughness, and professionalism in his investigation of Ataga’s brutal murder. Recall that Chidinma Ojukwu, a 21-year old Mass Communications student of the University of Lagos, was arrested by the Police on June 23, 2021, for the alleged murder of Super TV owner, 50-year old Usifo, with whom she had a romantic relationship. Usifo had been found dead on June 15, 2021, with ghastly, multiple stab wounds all over his body, at the said short rental apartment on Adebowale Oshin Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, which Chidinma had personallly booked. The ghastly wounds showed evidence of sustained torture. Chidinma had voluntarily confessed in her first public outing to stabbing Usifo severally with a knife under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and withdrawing the sum of N380,000 from the victim’s account with his ATM card. She was later to backtrack on this confession in a carefully arranged televised interview, where she claimed she had allegedly acted in self-defence. Usifo was later buried on July 30, 2021, at a solemn low-key ceremony at the Ebony Vaults, Ikoyi, Lagos, after a funeral service at the Lady Perpetua Help Catholic church in Victoria Island, Lagos. The Usifo family had also decried the alleged comfortable movement to prison from court and from court back to the prison, of Chidinma in an Uber ride.The family queried why this was done without even handcuffs and without being informed of the intending arraignment