Tag: Murder
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How Super TV boss was stabbed 7 times on the neck – Witness
Co-founder of Super Network Limited (owners of Super TV), Mr. Raman Obiorah Saliu, on Monday, told a Lagos High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) that a total of seven multiple stabs was found on the neck of the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Usifo Ataga.
Testifying in the trial of a 300 level Mass Communication student of the University of Lagos, Chidinma Ojukwu, who is suspected to have killed Ataga, Saliu said apart from the stabs on Ataga’s neck, there was one to the stomach and several on the two sides of the ribs and the left ventricular to the chest.
Saliu, who broke down in tears while testifying before Justice Yetunde Adesanya, said apart from the stabs on Ataga’s neck, there was one to the stomach and several on the two sides of the ribs and the left ventricular to the chest.Led in evidence by the Deputy Director of Public Prosecution, Mrs Adenike Oluwafemi, Saliu broke down in tears while testifying before Justice Yetunde Adesanya.
According to Saliu, the deceased was tied up, on both hands and legs like a ram waiting to be slaughtered.
Saliu, who is also a network engineer, programmer, and developer, testified as the fifth prosecution witness in the case. He told the court that he met the late Usifo Ataga 10 years ago in the course of building the Super TV App.
He explained that he was introduced to Ataga by a friend, Mr Bisi Osuneye, who is also late. He added that when Ataga came into the project as an investor, he became a co-founder by adding so many ideas and they started working on the project until his demise last year June.
The witness also stated that as Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Ataga usually convene management meetings on Mondays and Executive (EXCO) meetings on Tuesdays and they sometimes meet virtually using Microsoft link.
HOW I BECAME AWARE OF ATAGA’S DEATH
Narrating how he came to hear about his death, Saliu said that he got a call from Ataga on Monday 14, June 2021, that he was having stomach pain and he subsequently advised the Super TV boss to take his drugs and get some rest.
He said that much later, he needed to reach Ataga, in relation to some tasks and so he started to call him the next day from about 11am.Saliu narrated, “I started calling him, he didn’t pick his calls neither did he return my message. I was surprised because the only thing he wants to hear is the billing App, with MTN, which is working now.
“Michael (Ataga) didn’t pick his calls, everybody started reaching out to me because the only way they can get him is through me and the only way they can reach me is through him; he still did not pick up my calls, this was about 3:30pm, on June 15, 2021.
“Then I got a WhatsApp message from him, after reading the message, I said to myself this is not Michael, talking to me. The message read ” I saw your missed call, I took some drugs that made me sleeping.’ The construction of that message was not Michael, because Michael was very fluent in English.
“I knew that was not Micheal’s typing and it was someone else but I sent him a screenshot of the billing system in the Super TV App, that it’s working and his response to me was ok, great, that was when I knew something was happening because Michael will jump up, pick up his phone, and call me immediately. So, I went outside to take fresh air and I started thinking where he could have been now that he is not picking up my calls.
“I called Gambo, he is a driver and personal assistant (PA) to Michael. I asked him, did you receive any call from Micheal? He said no that he has also been calling him too because he needed to pick up his clothes from the laundry that he was traveling with to Abuja.
“Gambo said he got a WhatsApp message, that was between 5 to 6pm, on June 15, 2021, then we started thinking of what could have happened to him. Another of Micheal’s friend, Okwuedo, who lives with us at Victoria Garden City (VGC), also asked of his whereabouts, I told him I got a WhatsApp message from Michael. So, Okwuedo said let him see the message, immediately he saw it, he said this is not Michael’s typing.
“Okwuedo and Gambo went to few places where they thought he could be. So, I went back to the office and on Wednesday 16, June 2021, I asked Gambo if they found him, he said no. I then called his cook at Banana Island, that was when I knew that he left home since Sunday 13, June 2021.
“I was keeping calm because he was going to Abuja on Thursday for his 50th birthday. I told myself that wherever he was, I knew that he would come and meet me, and we would go to the airport, stay with the girls (Michael’s daughters) and his wife for his 50th birthday. They were actually waiting for him; they were planning a surprise birthday party for him.
“So, I started suspecting something was wrong because he was supposed to come to VGC on the 15th, but he didn’t. I had to raise an alarm that I don’t know where Michael was.
“My last WhatsApp message to Michael on June 16, 2021, was at 10:30am and the message read ‘Bro, where are you? I am worried, my BP is rising.” The message was read, no response, I started getting calls from his family wanting to wish him happy 50th birthday.
“Calls started coming in, I did not really know what to say. How can I say I’m looking for a 50-year-old man? To me, it didn’t make any sense. I wanted to go and make a complaint at the VGC police station of a missing person, when at about 6:33 to 6:35am on Thursday, 17 June 2021, I got a call from Mrs Brenda Ataga, who happens to be his wife and the wife said where is Usifo?
“I had to tell her the truth that I have been looking for Michael since Tuesday. She was a bit upset with me that I was looking for someone since on Tuesday and I did nothing about it. I tried to explain to her that I was trying to make a complaint, 10 minutes later she called back and said Michael’s phones were traced to the University of Lagos, UNILAG Guest House.
“I didn’t take my bath; I just grabbed my car key and I started driving to UNILAG. A friend called me, and I told him I was driving to UNILAG. He asked how I knew Usifo was in UNILAG, I mentioned that the information came from Brenda.
“Mrs Brenda Ataga also called me and said there is a team of policemen that will meet me at UNILAG, to conduct the search. I got to UNILAG before them, so I went to the security and told them I was looking for a black Range Rover and they directed me to the guest house.
“The police joined me with two of his friends and staff (member) from my office. Mrs Ataga called me and was giving me the GPS coordinate from where the direction of the phone is. While going through Yaba, I got a call from our GTBank account officer, whom I asked to help me trace Michael’s transactions, so that I can know where exactly he is.
“He told me that Michael made transactions on Sunday and Monday. The Sunday transaction was to a lady Mrs Nkechi Mogbo, the owner of the service apartment (where the deceased was murdered). The account officer also said that the transaction that was made on Monday was to a Sterling Bank with the name Chidinma Ojukwu Adora. The account officer asked me what was happening, I said today is his birthday and I have been looking for him since Tuesday.
“So, I told him that since the owner of the service apartment uses GTB, he should send me her number, and he did. The police said I should give the number to Brenda so that it will not distract from our search of Michael.
“Only for Brenda to later call and tell me that Michael is dead. I fainted; it took the police to resuscitate me. When I was a bit okay, I called her and asked how? She said she called the number I sent to her, and the owner of the apartment said somebody was murdered that she should show his means of Identification if it was the person we were looking for.
“So, Brenda shared her husband’s picture to the woman and the owner of the service apartment said this person was murdered here and she is on her way to the police station at Maroko, so Brenda asked me to meet Mrs Nkechi Mogbo, at Panti.
“I met her with some of Michael’s friends at Panti, and we went to the scene of the incident where Michael was murdered. I didn’t want to believe that Michael was dead, I saw Michael’s belongings that the police brought out and we were not allowed inside.
“When I got to the mortuary, I saw Michael’s body, Michael was killed like a chicken, I saw a very big cut at the back of his neck. The wickedness, for me, is that the day I was with Michael’s corpse; they were still taking money from his account, that was 17 June 2021, exactly the day he was 50 years old.
“There were subsequent USSD transactions on his account until Brenda and I decided to close the account. I started tracking Chidinma, I started looking at Michael’s calls from 9mobile and MTN, Chidinma was calling him with a WhatsApp number.
“I traced the money that was transferred by Michael to Chidinma’s Sterling Bank and I supplied all the information to the police at Panti. Around 1am, on June 23, 2021, on a Wednesday, I got a message from Panti, that Chidinma has been arrested.
“Michael’s iPhone came with an original Apple pouch, when the police recovered the iPhone from Chidinma, it was replaced with a N1000 pouch; Michael’s laptop was also recovered. There were two iPhones, one iPhone 11 and one iPhone 7 or 8, was also recovered; I was told by the police that she gave the other iPhone to her sister,” Saliu recounted as he broke down in tears.
He further stated that there was a restaurant at Lekki – Angle Villa Restaurant that the deceased made a transaction on June 13.
“I shared the information with Michael’s friends, and they proceeded to Angle Villa, to confirm if a transaction was actually made. They confirmed that Michael came so we requested CCTV footage to know if he went alone, but we discovered that he came with Chidinma.
“The police at Panti took the video and I was surprised to see the CCTV footage all over the social media.”
During cross-examination by the counsel to Chidinma, Onwuka Egwu, the witness said he had no idea who handed the CCTV footage video to the police.He said that the CCTV footage was trending prior to the arrest of Chidinma.
Justice Adesanya, in her ruling, adjourned until February 17 for the continuation of the trial.
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Bizarre: Son hacks father to death with pestle in Yobe
A 20-year-old man, Mai Goni has allegedly hacked his father, Goni Kawu to death with a pestle in Masaba, Bursari Local Government Area of Yobe State.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the Police Command in Yobe made this known on Wednesday.
The Command’s Spokesman, ASP Dungus Abdulkarim in Damaturu said the incident occurred on Tuesday at about 7: 30 p.m.
He said Kawu, 65, sustained injury on the head as a result of the attack and was confirmed dead by a doctor in the hospital.
Abdulkarim said the suspect fled the scene after committing the crime, adding that the command has intensified efforts to apprehend him.
The spokesman advised residents of the state to be law abiding, saying the police would deal decisively with anyone that engaged in criminality.
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Hanifa’s murder: Court fixes date for trial of school proprietor, Tanko
A Chief Magistrates’ Court sitting in Kano, on Wednesday fixed Feb. 9, for the trial of a school proprietor, Abdulmalik Tanko, 34, for the alleged murder of five-year-old Hanifa.
The Kano State Government charged Tanko alongside Hashimu Isyaku, 37 and Fatima Musa, 26, with culpable homicide, conspiracy, kidnapping and concealing/keeping in confinement a kidnapped person.
The Kano State Director Public Prosecution, Aisha Mahmoud, informed the court that the State has filed the charge before Kano High Court.
“We filed the charge because the offence alleged to have been committed by the defendants cannot be tried by this court.
“The Kano Chief Judge has directed that the case be transferred to court 5.
“We apply for another date to terminate the First Information Report (FIR) before this court,” she said.
On Dec. 4, 2021, Tanko, being the proprietor of Nobel Kids Comprehensive College, Kano, conspired with the two others to kidnap Hanifa.
Mahmoud earlier alleged that Tanko held Hanifa hostage in his house situated at Tudun Murtala Quarters, Kano, for six days and killed her with a rat poison, put her corpse into a sack and buried her in a shallow grave on Dec. 10, 2021.
“The defendants collected the sum of N100, 000 ransom out of the N6 million earlier requested,”
The pleas of the accused persons were not taken.
She said that the offences contravened the provision of Sections 97, 274, 277 and 221 of the Penal Code.
The Chief Magistrate, Muhammad Jibril, ordered the remand of the defendants in a Correctional Centre.
Jibril adjourned the matter until Feb. 9, for further mention.
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Police arrest man for allegedly killing wife in Nasarawa
The Police in Nasarawa State has arrested one, Ovye Yakubu, over alleged murder of his wife, Esther Aya, in their residence at Sabonpegi-Shabu community of Lafia.
Ramhan Nansel, Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, confirmed the arrest on Saturday in Lafia.
According to him, the suspect was arrested on Friday Jan. 7, after the Police received report of the incident that happened on the same date as a result of querrel.
Nansel said that investigation was ongoing at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Lafia, to unravel the mystery behind the incident.
He said that the corpse of the woman has been deposited at the morgue for post-mortem examination.
Meanwhile, it was garthered that the accused allegedly beat his wife to death following an argument that led to quarrel.
A family member of the deceased who preferred anonymity alledged that heated argument ensued between the couple when the suspect tried to stop a carpenter engaged by the wife to fix net to their window.
He alledged that the suspect had beaten up the wife when she insisted that the carpenter should continued with the work.
“The deceased engaged the service of a carpenter to fix net in their windows to prevent mosquitoes, but the husband stopped the carpenter, which the wife resisted, eventually the husband started beating her in the process,” he alleged.
On his part, the carpenter who also pleaded anonymity, alledged that the suspect chased him away when he was engaged by the deceased to fix net.
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Just In: Police nab suspect in connection to murdered UNIJOS student, Jennifer
One suspect in connection to the gruesome murder of Miss Jennifer Anthony, a 300-level student of the University of Jos, Plateau State has been arrested by the police.
Jennifer, a native of Akwanga Local Government in Nasarawa State who had gone missing on the eve of the New Year was found dead in Jos.
She was last seen with her boyfriend, a suspected ‘Yahoo Boy’ now at large where they reportedly lodged at a Hotel along Zaria Road Jos.
Jennifer’s eyes were plucked off and other parts of her body mutilated, indicating she might have been murdered for ritual purposes.
The deceased was a student of Special Education and Rehabilitation Science.
Meanwhile, report just coming in indicate that the prime suspect has been traced to Bida Bidi, Jos North where the mum owns a private school.
The report also states that the father of the suspect is a lecturer in the same institution where the deceased was schooling.
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Sad! How 2 brothers murdered their sister for being too social
Two brothers from Afghanistan identified only as Sayed H., 26, and Seyed H., 22, were arrested and charged by the German government for killing their sister just ‘because of her Western way of life’.
According to Prosecutors, the brothers lured their 34-year-old sister Maryam H. to a meeting in Berlin on July 13, before choking, strangling and cutting her throat.
After killing her, the brothers dismembered their sister and then took a taxi to a train station later that day with her body in a suitcase as punishment for her western lifestyle which did not correspond to their archaic ideas of women.
CCTV footage showed the duo lifting the black duffle bag they had bought from Primark for 60 euros (£50) onto a train at the Südkreuz train station in Berlin.
The prosecutors also alleged that the brothers travelled to Bavaria by train before driving to a wooded area close to Sayed’s home near Holzkirchen, where they buried the mother-of-two’s body in a shallow grave.
After her body was found, an autopsy revealed that the victim died from head and neck trauma.
Apart from being upset with the fact that the lady was living a western life, they weren’t prepared to accept that she had divorced her husband, to whom she was married when she was 16.
The deceased had divorced her ex after violent incidents.
After her marriage broke down, Maryam divorced her then-husband under German law in 2017. However, he reportedly refused to annul the marriage under Islamic law.
Maryam and her two children – a daughter, 10, and a son, 13 fled to Germany as asylum seekers from Afghanistan in 2013. She had a new relationship before her death.
Meanwhile, the brothers have given differing accounts about what was inside the suitcase, which prosecutors claim contained Maryam’s body.
Seyed claimed that boxing gloves and dumbbells were in the bag while his brother Sayad contradicted him and claimed there were clothes and heavy class objects inside.
Seyed also reportedly identified himself and his brother as the men captured in CCTV footage at the train station in Berlin.
During interrogation, the Afghan brothers were quoted as telling investigators:
“We treat women differently than you do. A woman is like a servant who does the housework, cooks and looks after the children.”
One source told BZ:
“Maryam was a good person. She has been very scared since her divorce because her brothers terrorized her for reasons of faith.”
An Afghan woman who lived in the same accommodation as Maryam said:
“There are men who are just crazy. I’m also afraid that something similar could happen to me because I don’t wear a headscarf either.”
According to local media, when Maryam’s brothers found out she had met someone new, they began to intrude in her life.
They then forced her to wear a headscarf and forbade her from leaving her accommodation without a male escort.
The brothers had allegedly lured their sister from her temporary accommodation in the capital Berlin, where she was living with her children, and killed her because she had given up following Islamic practices, which they claimed harmed the family’s honour.
Maryam’s ex-husband also threatened her with death, leading to a restraining order being taken out on him.
The two brothers have been in custody since August 3 and face life imprisonment if convicted of murder.
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BREAKING: Former President to stand trial over killing of Nigerians
A former Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh has been accused of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture and arbitrary detention.
The Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) made this known at the weekend in its findings.
Among the ex-President’s high handedness victims, TRRC revealed, were West African migrants, including nine Nigerians.
The TRRC in its report said the ex-president was also responsible for the persecution and unlawful arrest of Gambian journalists, the killing of 17 civilians, and for the deaths, sexual violence, torture of persons accused of being witches or wizards.
The commission’s revealed Jammeh alongside “Tumbul Tamba, Kawsu Camara (Bombardier), Bai Lowe, Musa Badjie, Landing Tamba, Sanna Manjang, Solo Bojang, Malick Jatta, Alieu Jeng, Omar Jallow (Oya), Lamin Sillah and Buba Jallow were responsible for the murder of the West African migrants”.
Migrants from Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo, including their Gambian contact, were held by Jammeh’s top lieutenants in the security services before being murdered by the “Junglers,” a notorious paramilitary unit that took orders from the ex-president.
TRRC was set up in January 2017 by President Adama Barrow, whose election in 2016 put an end to over two decades of the former despotic leader.
Jammeh is presently in exile in Equatorial Guinea since his departure from the Gambia in January 2017.
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Murder: Convicted police officer, Derek Chauvin pleads guilty to violating late George Floyd’s rights
Derek Chauvin, the white former Minneapolis policeman convicted of murdering African-American George Floyd, pleaded guilty Wednesday to violating Floyd’s civil rights –- his first acknowledgement of criminal wrongdoing in the case.
Chauvin pleaded guilty in the courthouse in St. Paul, Minnesota, to federal charges of use of excessive force for holding his knee to Floyd’s neck for nearly 10 minutes on May 25, 2020 until Floyd expired.
Floyd’s death, which was filmed by a bystander on a cellphone, set off months of Black Lives Matter demonstrations throughout the country over police abuse of African-Americans.
Chauvin was convicted in a state trial of murder in June and was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison.
But he has not admitted guilt to the murder charges and is appealing that conviction.
Chauvin had originally pleaded innocent in the federal rights case. But the judge told him that if he had not changed that to guilty, he faced possible life imprisonment, according to local WCCO TV.
After he reversed his plea, federal prosecutors said Chauvin could be sentenced to between 20 and 25 years, served concurrently with and beyond the sentence in the murder conviction.
That ensures the 45-year-old former Minneapolis policeman will spend years in prison, whatever happens with his appeal on the murder charge.
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Abia man masterminds kidnap, gruesome murder of wife over multiple inheritances
Operatives of the Nigeria Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) have arrested four suspects in connection with the abduction and gruesome killing of the Mrs Nneka Nwanyi-Sunday Emeh Kalu who was earlier reported missing and later found dead in a cassava farm on August 29, 2021, in Ngugworo Community in Nguzu Edda in Afikpo South, Ebonyi State.
The suspects arrested are; Irem Ifeanyi Mbah, Igwe Anya Chima, Okorie Okam and Emeh Kalu – the husband of the deceased and the principal suspect. The suspects are within the age bracket of 25 – 40 years and all natives of Nguzu Edda village in Afikpo South Local Council Area of Ebonyi State.
Police spokesman, CP Frank Mba stated on Wednesday that investigations into the death of the victim followed complaints received from the people of Ngugworo community, Ebonyi State, a border town to Abia State where the victim resided when the decomposing body of the late Mrs Kalu was discovered in their community.
The discrete investigations carried out by the police team led to the arrest of the four suspects. It was discovered that Emeh Kalu – the husband of the deceased, in a bid to fraudulently and hastily ‘inherit’ his wife’s numerous assets including landed property, houses, money in bank and thriving business, etc, procured the services of five (5) other criminal elements to stage the abduction of his wife by luring her to meet him at a junction to pick up somethings for the house.
Investigations further revealed how the criminals strangled her to death after obtaining necessary information on the whereabouts of title documents and other relevant papers of her possessions.
Efforts are being intensified to arrest other suspects and persons indicted in the matter with a view to concluding the investigations.
The Force, while condoling the family of the deceased for the unfortunate loss, enjoined families and relatives to be their “brother’s keeper” and provide prompt information to the Police that would assist in proactively containing crimes and all forms of gender-based violence.
CP Frank Mba disclosed that all the suspects would be arraigned in court on completion of the investigation.
