By Precious Igbonwelundu
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SuperTV, Usifo Ataga was on the verge of a major business breakthrough when he was murdered, The Nation has learnt.
A source close to the deceased dismissed claims that he was doing drugs, describing it as a “blatant lie”.
Ataga was murdered on June 15, at a high-priced Short Service Apartment where he was spending time with his 21-year-old lover, Chidinma Ojukwu, the prime suspect.
Ojukwu, who was arrested by police on June 23 and paraded the following day, had alleged that she stabbed Ataga to death in self-defence, claiming she and the deceased had a cocktail of drugs, alcohol.
But her claims have been punctured by family members and friends of Ataga, who have insisted that they were aimed at tarnishing his reputation.
A close relative of Ataga who spoke to The Nation yesterday osaid the businessman was about closing a major business deal before the unfortunate incident.
“All I can tell you is that he was about closing a major business deal before he was killed. The news about him doing drugs is pure rubbish. Ataga was a fitness enthusiast and a core gentleman.
“He was an amateur boxer and loved healthy living. Also, claims that autopsy had been conducted or concluded are false,” he said.
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The source did not give further details on the business deal.
But search by The Nation revealed that plans were in top gear for the SuperTV Network to expand its tentacles into the Nigerian mobile market space.
The company last year appointed the European TV Guild to source over 100 channels for its IPTV SuperTV service which targeted about 50 million subscribers.
Meanwhile revelations from Ojukwu’s elder sister have shown the prime suspect lied about her real identity.
According to information availed detectives at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, the 300 level undergraduate was not a product of single parenting as she claimed but rather abandoned her real family at the age of 10.
Her real name, according to her sister, was Chidinma Blessing Echefu, which she changed to Chidinma Adaora Ojukwu after her mother at a young age.
Chioma further told detectives that they lost their father when Chidinma was two-year-old and their mother later remarried, took her children with her.
She said the suspect became rebellious along the line and even started smoking at 11 years, a development that forced their mother to take her to her uncle’s place in Mushin where they hoped she could be tamed but was kicked out of the house for similar behaviours and that was how she met Ojukwu, her adopted father.
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