Chidinma Ojukwu, the alleged murder suspect of Super TV Chief Executive Officer,Usifo Ataga on yesterday, told the Lagos State High Court sitting in Tafawa Balewa Square, that her statements seeking to be tender by the police were written under duress while in custody.
Chidinma, who testified in her trial within trial as defence witness one (DW1), told Justice Yetunde Adesanya that the first two statements she wrote while in custody were torn and she was forced to sign the one that ASP Olusegun Bamidele wrote and the one that was dictated to her by Olufunke Madeyinlo.
The 300-level Mass Communication undergraduate of the University of Lagos, is standing trial over the alleged murder of Ataga. She is also charged with stealing and forgery alongside one Adedapo Quadri and her sister, Chioma Egbuchu.
In her testimony yesterday, on how she made the statements which the police sought to tender against her, the accused said before she was taken to the Commissioner of Police’s office at Ikeja, her hands were handcuffed on June 23, to the chair she sat until the next morning on June 24, when she was brought out of the interrogation room and taken to Ikeja.
Chidinma, who was led in evidence in the trial within trial by her counsel, Mr Onwunka Egwu, narrated how the police allegedly maltreated her before obtaining statements from her.
After her testimony, she was cross examined by the prosecution on some of the allegations raised against the police, and the judge, thereafter, gave the prosecution and the defence 14 days each to file their written addresses in the trial within trial.
Consequently Justice Adesanya, adjourned the case to January 11, 2023 for the adoption of final written addresses, in the trial within trial.