The money belonging to the late Super TV CEO Usifo Ataga was still being withdrawn on the day he would have clocked 50, co-founder of the Super Network Limited, the parent company of Super TV, Rahman Saliu, told the Lagos State High Court on Monday, February 14.
Ataga is alleged to have been killed by Chidinma Ojukwu, a student of the University of Lagos.
Giving his testimony before the court, Saliu said he and the deceased used to hold a management meeting on Mondays and Tuesdays, adding that before their meeting on June 15, 2021, he needed to complete a task.
He said he called and sent a message to Ataga but there was no reply.
“Then I got a WhatsApp message from him and after reading the message, I said to myself that this was not Michael (Ataga) talking to me. The message read, ‘I saw your missed call; I took some drugs that can make me sleeping.’ The construction of that message was not Michael, because Michael was fluent in English,” he said.
“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 jump up, pick up his phone and call me immediately.”
Saliu said Ataga’s driver and personal assistant also expressed worry over Ataga’s whereabouts.
Saliu added that the search continued till the deceased’s wife, Brenda, called on June 17, 2021, requesting the whereabouts of her husband.
He revealed that Ataga’s phone was traced to the University of Lagos Guest House. Through the help of the company’s account officer at GTB, Saliu said it was discovered that Ataga had made transactions few days back. One of the transactions was made to a woman, Nkechi Mogbo, the owner of the service apartment. The other was to Ojukwu.
Saliu, a network engineer and developer, explained that Brenda later called him back after speaking with Mogbo that Ataga had died.
“I didn’t want to believe that Michael was dead. When I got to the mortuary, I saw Michael’s body. Michael was killed like chicken; I saw a big cut at the back of his neck. The wickedness for me was that the day I was with Michael’s corpse, they were still taking money from his account, that was 17th 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,” he said.
The trial was adjourned till February 17, 2022.
