Rahman Saliu, friend and co-founder of Super TV has told a Lagos State High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) how a WhatsApp message written in poor English raised suspicion about the fate of the late Super TV Chief Executive Office, Usifo Ataga.
Saliu said the deceased was fluent in English but the SMS sent to him from Ataga’s phone while a search was ongoing contained uncharacteristic errors.
The WhatsApp message sent by his suspected killer(s) to Saliu reads: “I saw your missed call; I took some drugs that can made me sleeping.”
WITHIN NIGERIA recalls that the prime suspect, Chidinma Ojukwu had confessed to have stabbed Ataga twice when she was paraded at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters in Ikeja on Thursday, June 24th, 2021.
Describing how Ataga was killed, Saliu told the court that the deceased was tied up, on both hands and legs and “killed like a chicken” with multiple stab wounds to the ribs and surgery-like cuts to the neck.
Saliu, who testified as the fifth prosecution witness added that he met the late Michael Usifo Ataga, 10 years ago, in the course of building the Super TV App.
The witness explained that Ataga, as CEO, usually chaired virtual management meetings on Mondays and Executive (EXCO) meetings on Tuesdays by Microsoft link.
According to him, Ataga called him on Monday 14, June 2021 that he was having stomach pain but he advised him to take his drugs and rest.
Saliu said he had a task that needed to be completed before the management meeting so he didn’t bother to call Ataga back until he was done.
He said: “On Tuesday, I wanted him (the deceased) to come to the meeting to give him the completed task, so I started calling. My first call was at 11am, on June 15, 2021, I wanted to give him the brief that the task was easy in order to relieve him of his high blood pressure.
“I started calling him, he didn’t pick up his call nor did he return my message; I was surprised because the only thing he wants to hear is the billing App, with MTN, that it was now working.
“Michael didn’t pick his call; everybody started reaching out to me because the only way they could get him was through me and the only way they could reach me was through him. He still did not pick up my call; 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 can made me sleeping’.
“The construction of that message was not Michael’s because Michael was very fluent in English. I knew that was not Michael’s typing; it was someone else.
“Then I sent him a screenshot of the billing system in the Super TV App, that it was working and his response to me was ‘Ok, great.’
“That was when I knew something was happening because Michael would have jumped up, picked up his phone and called me immediately.”