Murder trial: I bought late Usifo Ataga’s laptop from Chidinma for N495,000- businessman tells court

A businessman, Ifeoluwa Oluwo, has narrated how he bought the laptop of the murdered Super TV CEO, Usifo Utaga, from his girlfriend, Chidinma Ojukwu.

While appearing before the Lago state High Court, Igbosere, today November 25, Oluwo told the court that he bought the laptop from Chidinma for N495,000, on June 18, two days after the body of Ataga’s body was found at the short service apartment in Lekki.

Chidinma, had on June 13, requested for a short service apartment in Lekki where she and Ataga, who was her lover, stayed. His body was however found in the apartment on June 16.

Testifying before the court today, Oluwo who claims to be a businessman who deals in the sales of phones, laptops, and accessories at Computer village, mentioned that Chidinma had patronized him in April this year and that they built a business relationship afterward.

“On June 18, she(Chidinma) sold me a laptop for N495,000, after negotiations and market value comparison. In order to make a sale you have to submit some documents and fill form: your government identification card, driver’s license, international passport, voter’s card, NIN.

You also have to fill a form which includes email, phone number, house address, full name. It will also contain the full value of the item, for that day, the name of the item and the serial number of the item.

This is what we do to contact customer if there is any issues.

I asked her (Chidinma) to unlock the laptop and she did. So I conducted my internal observation which included speed performance, the circle count of the battery and general functionality.

After that I, proceeded to ask questions: do you have a receipt for this laptop? She stated that it was a gift from her boyfriend and that she has two laptops and needed to sell one to pay for some bills.

I conducted a check on a website for my market evaluation. I confirmed the value of the laptop. It was $1,000 to $1,200. The exchange rate of Dollars as at that time was N400 to N450. She wanted to sell for N600,000. We were able to negotiate for N495,000, which I initiated from my bank account to hers” he said

When asked if Chidinma produced the receipt of the laptop, Oluwo responded saying she was not able to provide the receipt as she insisted that it was a gift from her boyfriend.

“After the sale of the laptop, we saw her face on social media, regarding a murder case. Few days later, the Police from State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Panti, invited my Manager, Olutayo Abayomi.

A call was made to me by someone else in the office, that he has been invited to the police station. So I proceeded to the station to find out why. When I got to the Police Station, I discovered that it was in connection to the laptop we bought from Chidinma on June 18.

We both made a statement detailing how we came about the laptop and how we made the purchase. We gave the police the documents of the former owner, which included a copy of her voters’ card, a copy of our form, all receipts which already had her information, regarding the laptop” Oluwo said

The witness told the court that there was no way he could have detected that the laptop was a stolen one.

Justice Adesanya adjourned the case to November 29, for the continuation of trial.