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The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) has explained why special transportation was availed Chidinma Ojukwu, the prime suspect in the murder of the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Usifo Ataga, as she was driven out of the court premises on Monday.
This medium reports that NCS used to be known as the Nigerian Prisons Service until the Federal Government changed the parastatal’s name.
Minutes after she was remanded by Chief Magistrate Adeola Adedayo, a prison official put Miss Ojukwu, without handcuffs, in the front seat of a Toyota Camry car with Lagos plate number EPE 671 BD, and whisked her away from the Yaba Magistrates’ Court.
Chidinma seated in the car about to be driven to remand by a Prisons official
The front windows of the car with tainted black glasses was wound down such that Chidinma could be seen looking straight ahead as the car sped out of the courthouse parking lot. They left behind a green prison bus, which was used to convey other inmates to the courthouse.
Explaining that there was a good reason for the treatment Miss Ojukwu got, the Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Rotimi Oladokun said the Correctional Service often makes special transportation arrangements for defendants in high profile cases, as a security measure.
“It’s not the usual practice. It was a security diversion. It is a high profile case, so it was part of our security diversion. It was just to create a diversion,” Oladokun told The Nation
Chief Magistrate Adedayo on Monday remanded Ojukwu and her co-defendant Adedapo Quadri for 30 days following an application by the police counsel Cyril Ejiofor.
The defendants were accused to have conspired to kill Ataga and stole his laptop, phones and cash valued at N3.8 million.
They allegedly committed the offences on June 16, at No. 19, Adewale Oshin Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.
The court adjourned till September 6, for review of remand and Directorate of Public Prosecution’s Advice (DPP)’s advice.
Miss Ojukwu, a 21-year-old Mass Communication student of the University of Lagos, was arrested by the police on June 23, 2021. She was said to have been in a romantic relationship with 50-year-old Ataga for about four months before the incident.
Following her parade by the police on June 24, the undergraduate said she and Ataga were “having fun” when an argument broke out and she stabbed him twice.
On June 29, she pleaded for forgiveness saying she was not ready to die. She attributed her action to influence of hard drugs and smoking. But things took a dramatic turn on July 13, 2021 when Chidinma recanted on her earlier confession.
