Update: Chidinma Ojukwu denies killing late Billionaire Businessman Michael Ataga

21 year Chidinma Adaora Ojukwu, the young lady paraded by Police in connection with the brutal murder of late Businessman Michael Usifo Utaga has made a 360-degrees turn to deny having any hand in the brutal murder of the late Chief Executive.

In a new interview granted to Crime Fighters and seen by RovingNaija, Chidinma claimed that she admitted to the killing of Ataga in the past because she was under pressure and because nobody believed her.

In her new interview released on Monday, she claimed that she met the deceased already dead and in a pool of his own blood when she returned from where she had gone to get food for their consumption.

“I did not involve anybody. I don’t know who must have come into the apartment. Definitely somebody did that but I don’t know who that person is.

“I didn’t know what happened when I left the room to buy food. Because of what I did after (fleeing the scene of the crime) by not alerting the police and also withdrawing money from his account, I feel guilty for what happened but I did not kill him.

“I believe someone knew where we were and waited until I left before they entered.

“Due to pressure and insistence of the security operatives that nobody entered the room apart from the two of us, I resolved that since no one believed me, let me just take the blame,” she explained.

She also denied that someone may have influenced her new statement in the interview with Crime Fighters.

“No one is influencing my statements, I have not spoken to anyone since my arrest, not even my relation or anybody close to me, she claimed.

Asked why she could deign to steal money from the account of a dead man, she said it was in line with a promise the deceased made to her.

“I just withdrew the money because he had already promised me, it’s not like I had anything to do with his death,” she said.

The Full statement of denial:

“Before I was leaving (to buy food), he stood up and locked the door.

“But when I got in (got back) I was knocking (but) he did not answer and when I opened the door it was already opened, it wasn’t locked. The duvet was already on the floor.

“The bed, the couch was facing the door and the bed was stained with blood already. The floor where he was, was blood (stained) and then music was on and TV was on. The room was already disarranged like someone broke in.

“Then I saw him (Michael Ataga’s body) on the floor. I did not know what to do. I took my things, his things, and left. I was afraid, I didn’t know if I had raised the alarm, they would have arrested me for doing it (murder) because I and him were just the only people in the room.

“I just left. I was packing my things and I noticed that my cloth was stained so I changed into another. I took the bag that contained his ID, document and bank statement.

“My bag was already on the floor, I met my bag on the floor and then the stuff he was with was on the TV set – the stuff I took – so I just put them into the nylon and I left. I took his phone.

“In the following week, I was home then and I went out to withdraw some money with the ATM that was with me. I withdrew 200 (two hundred thousand naira),” she said.

However, the Lagos state police command is having none of this new story by Chidinma Ojukwu. Commissioner of police of the state command, Hakeem Odumosu dismissed the new statement credited to the suspect.

“That is the trait of a hardened criminal,” he said with emphasis.

“She was here and we recorded her statement at the state CID on the night that she was arrested we recorded all her statement.

“…her new statement is coming as an afterthought,” he said

CP Odumosu also assured the public that the police is on top of the case.

‘We are not leaving any stone unturned and we are not leaving any link unfollowed in this case,” he said.

Also resolved not to leave any stone unturned in the quest for justice is cousin to the deceased, Barrister Franklin Ufua, who maintains that the deceased was brutally murdered not by Chidinma acting alone, but in conjunction with some accomplice(s) still at large.

“That deed could not have been done by that lady alone, it is not possible,” he declared.

“Even if he was drugged, it is not possible because…I saw the lady and I saw my cousin…Apart from the fact that he was tied, there were multiple stabs on his body.

“So that story of two stabs on his neck is not true.

“He was stabbed in other places; his legs…(pause), in fact, in YABA…at the mortuary, the attendants were so dramatic that they told us clearly: the stabbing here (his stomach) was so bad that there was a hole; the guy (medical attendant) stuck his two fingers into my cousin’s body – in my presence! I am serious!

“The jugular vein, he was stabbed there deliberately. It was not as if he was just stabbed on the neck, he was stabbed on the jugular vein twice and on his body multiple times,” he said.

Still To Come: Who Is Chidinma Ojukwu’s New Coach?