Mike Ozekhome
Constitutional lawyer Mike Ozekhome has been contracted by the family of murdered Super TV boss, Michael Ataga.
The family in a bid to get justice, hired the top lawyer to secure it for them.
He confirmed his legal representation of the family to The Nation on Monday following enquiries to that effect.
Asked if he was to watch brief on behalf of the family or whether a fiat had been obtained from the state to enable him undertake the prosecution, Ozekhome said: “All I can confirm to you is that I have been briefed by the family to ensure that justice is done in the matter.”
The Nation reports the bereaved family last week alleged they were not notified by the police when the primary suspect, Chidinma Ojukwu, 21, and others were separately arraigned before a Yaba Magistrate’s Court.
The family also accused the police of alleged attempt to cover up the killers, low level of professionalism in bringing to book the perpetrators of the heinous crime that led to Ataga’s unprovoked and cold blooded murder.
Ataga, 50, was murdered on June 15, at a short-let apartment on Adebowale Oshin Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, where he was spending time with his undergraduate lover, Ojukwu.
The police arrested Ojukwu on June 23 who initially confessed to have killed the businessman and gave gory details of the incident.
But in subsequent interviews, Ojukwu who had claimed they were under the influence of alcohol and drugs when she stabbed Ataga to death, denied committing the crime, claiming she stepped out for an errand only to return and saw that the door to their apartment was not locked and he had been brutally murdered.
In the course of police investigation, other suspects, including Ojukwu’s adopted father, Emmanuel Ojukwu and one Babalola Disu were also arraigned for preventing the police from performing their lawful duties and refusal to report a crime.
In its accusation of the police, the family expressed shock that Disu, whom they highly suspected to have committed the murder, was charged with obstruction of justice and failure to report a crime.
It said its suspicion of Disu was based on information they received that his short-let apartment was directly opposite the one Ataga was killed inside which was booked by Chidinma Ojukwu.
The family alleged that Disu had asked that the facility’s carpenter be called to fix his door only for the carpenter to be told later that it was Ataga’s door that was broken.
It also expressed displeasure about what it termed alleged comfortable movement of Ojukwu from court to the prison in a hailing cab ride without handcuffs on her.
“To all other suspects involved in this dastardly act (except Chidinma who was ordered remanded ), bail was granted by Chief Magistrate Adeola Adedayo, in the funny conditions of one million naira each with two sureties in like sum,” it said lamenting the “over liberal bail terms in such a heinous crime of hideous and horrific murder.”
The family said it viewed these acts by the police as a slap on their face, the face of justice and a deliberate cover-up.