Inside Nigeria
Murder in Banana Island: How Girlfriend Drugged, Stabbed Super TV Billionaire CEO, Usifo Ataga, to Death Hours to 50th Birthday
It is a sad day for family and friends of Michael Usifo Ataga, the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, and a director in Super Network Limited, a telecoms firm, as he has been gruesomely murdered by his girlfriend.
Ataga who resides in Banana Island was reported missing on Sunday by concerned friends and family after all efforts to reach him proved abortive and just few hours to his 50th birthday.
Checks at his Victoria Island office showed he wasn’t there either and this put everyone in a panic mode including his wife and children who reside in Abuja.
Unfortunately, his lifeless body was found Friday morning in a flat in Lekki Phase 1 with multiple wounds after several withdrawals were made from his bank account.
Usifo who would have been 50 years old had met a girl about two weeks ago and they began a relationship. This is despite the fact that he is married to a manager in Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
Usifo who felt more comfortable meeting with his new love outside his home and hers, to prevent nosey neighbours from prying, rented an Airbnb in Lekki, Lagos where they both checked into before the unfortunate incidence.
Following his disappearance, a combined team of concerned friends, family members, the police and DSS operatives all the way from Abuja through the concerted efforts of the wife, tracked down the owner of the Airbnb, who received payment from the side chic’s bank account into which Ataga had previously made a transfer for the payment to.
The apartment was broken into and that was where he was found dead with multiple stabs in his neck, chest and thigh.
The girlfriend withdrew N5 million from his account before they killed Ataga.
Apparently, the side chic carried out the murder after she must have drugged him as the security guards at the rentals said no 3rd party came visiting Atage and the side chic besides a dispatch rider who brought drugs for the girl.
The side chic who was last seen on Tuesday when the murder happened, was equally tracked down and arrested alongside the owner of the Airbnb.
Many of Ataga’s friends have expressed as to how the side chic was able to pull the dastardly act all alone as Ataga was said to have been an amateur boxer who was very strong.
After the side chic left the apartment following his gruesome death, money began to disappear from Atage’s Guaranty Trust Bank account and it was an email from Ataga’s email address asking for a change in his account details, did the withdrawals stop.
With thiis, GTBank put an embargo on the account to prevent any further withdrawal.
Investigations is still on and the case is still unfolding.
Source: Street Journal