The audio recording of a phone conversation between Chidinma Ojukwu the alleged murderer of Usifo Ataga, the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, and Abubakar Mohammed, a security guard at the rented short-let service apartment where the married entrepreneur was murdered has been played in court.
The audio was played at a Lagos High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos Island on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, during the resumption of the ongoing hearing for Ataga’s murder.
In the conversation, the court further heard where Mohammed told the first defendant (Chidinma) that as she was not around he could not go and knock on the man’s door.
He further asked her what time she was coming back; she said I am coming; while she was saying “I am coming,” Mohammed asked her to please use her number to call him so that he can have it, and she said ok.
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The prosecution tendered the CD in evidence but the first defendant’s counsel, Onwuka Egwu, objected to the tendering of the CD on the grounds that Bamidele (PW9) was not the maker of the CD.
He said, “The alleged maker of the CD, is Mohammed (PW2) and the prosecution had not made the required document of why this court will make do with a hearsay document when the author had already given evidence as PW2”.
Egwu cited Section 83 1 (a) (ii), 2011 of the Evidence Act and said: “The prosecution has not laid any of this foundation of the tendering of the document through Segun Bamidele.
“If the prosecution actually desires and wants to rely on this document, PW2 ought to have been called,” he said.
In her reply, Oluwafemi said, “It is trite law that whatever the investigation Police Officer gathered as evidence is direct evidence and not hearsay. Finally, admissibility is based on relevance”.
