Usifo Ataga is dead and buried but he is alive on our tongues.
Our wagging tongues are still tossing and turning the events that led to his untimely death. Much as we would love to stop talking, to honor the dead and the wishes of his loved ones to stop dragging his name all over media, his is a hard-to-drop-gist point.
Was his death manslaughter?
Was it premeditated?
Did he beg for his life?
Did Chidinma truly kill him or she had accomplices?
…Come sef, this so called Chidinma’s father, Mr. Ojukwu, we hear he isn’t her father but her sugar daddy…is it true?
Why is it taking the police too long to get to the bottom of this investigation, it’s almost two months since he was murdered?
We wagged our tongues over this and watched from a distance the events at his burial.
His children and his mother were reported to have given moving eulogies, a testament to the fact that the man we have dragged in memes and skits was a real human being too; a father, a son, a friend, a husband…who despite the circumstances of his unfortunate dalliance with Chidinma Ojukwu, the 21-year-old, 3rd-year student of Mass Comm in Unilag, didn’t deserve to be murdered and his killers go scot-free.
This is why his family and friends have dusted off the shame attached to his passing and are rightly demanding a thorough probe into his death.
The family is accusing the Police of not doing their job, they said the police so far have demonstrated a “low level of professionalism” on the persecution of Ataga’s killers.
First off, they criticized the manner the police displayed Chidinma to the media where questions and confessions were dragged out of her.
Personally, I don’t see this as shoddy or unprofessional police work; the police have hitherto been displaying suspects to the media; Chidinma wouldn’t be the first. This is even done abroad where the police let’s the press/media interview suspects and one of the many questions usually asked is, “why/how did you do it?”
Again, the family claimed they were not informed when Chidinma was arraigned before the Chief Magistrates’ court in Yaba and queried how a suspect in a murder case, could be conveyed to the court in an Uber ride.
As if that isn’t enough, they wonder why the police agreed to let Chidima do a televised show,(it can only be described as such because it was well orchestrated. It was a new and improved Chidinma we saw) where she then retracted her confession, claiming she killed Ataga in self-defense.
If you put yourself for a moment in Ataga’s family shoes, you’ll find it truly disgusting.
You ask yourself, why is she being given special treatment?
Yeah, she is a fine innocent girl…
Yes, she may not have meant to kill him…
Yes, she is just like the girl next door…
But she is involved in a murder case!
Why allow Chidinma to ride to court in a Camry, what happened to the regular truck, aka Black Maria that suspects are taken to courts in?
Come sef, who paid for that ride?
And the rest of the suspects, arrested by the police, the family claims were let off easy with no less than N1 million bail! Even Baba Ijesha didn’t get N1million bail, he got two…but suspects in Ataga’s murder shouldn’t be let off so easy.
Anyway, let those who know the law handle this.
Here’s hoping the Police will not lose focus and do their jobs without being seen as partial…I know this will be a hard one…we all know why.
Usifo Ataga deserves a proper probe into why he was killed.
His family needs closure.
We need something else to wag our tongues over.