Super TV boss: Ataga’s family hires Ozekhome as counsel, alleges cover up by police
Constitutional lawyer Mike Ozekhome has confirmed being briefed by the family of murdered Super TV boss, Michael Ataga, to ensure they get justice.
He confirmed his legal representation of the family to The Nation on Monday following enquiries to that effect.
Asked if he was to watch brief on behalf of the family or whether a fiat had been obtained from the state to enable him undertake the prosecution, Ozekhome said: “All I can confirm to you is that I have been briefed by the family to ensure that justice is done in the matter.”
The Nation reports the bereaved family last week alleged they were not notified by the police when the primary suspect, Chidinma Ojukwu, 21, and others were separately arraigned before a Yaba Magistrate’s Court.
The family also accused the police of alleged attempt to cover up the killers, low level of professionalism in bringing to book the perpetrators of the heinous crime that led to Ataga’s unprovoked and cold blooded murder.
Ataga, 50, was murdered on June 15, at a short-let apartment on Adebowale Oshin Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, where he was spending time with his undergraduate lover, Ojukwu.
The police arrested Ojukwu on June 23 who initially confessed to have killed the businessman and gave gory details of the incident.
But in subsequent interviews, Ojukwu who had claimed they were under the influence of alcohol and drugs when she stabbed Ataga to death, denied committing the crime, claiming she stepped out for an errand only to return and saw that the door to their apartment was not locked and he had been brutally murdered.
In the course of police investigation, other suspects, including Ojukwu’s adopted father, Emmanuel Ojukwu and one Babalola Disu were also arraigned for preventing the police from performing their lawful duties and refusal to report a crime.
In its accusation of the police, the family expressed shock that Disu, whom they highly suspected to have committed the murder, was charged with obstruction of justice and failure to report a crime. Nation
