Sylvia Ataga, the mother of Usifo Ataga, the deceased CEO of Super TV, on Thursday stated that her pain is that she could not monitor her son in his last days.
Gatekeepers News had in June reported that Usifo was stabbed to death and left in his own pool of blood in an Airbnb facility, a vacation rental, in the Lekki area of Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria.
A 21-year-old student of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Chidinma Ojukwu was arrested as the prime suspect and she confessed to killing Usifo when she was first paraded by the Lagos State Police Command.
“…I took a knife and stabbed his neck. I approached the door and he followed me. I stabbed him twice on the neck side,” she had last month.
She, however, made a u-turn on her statement in an interview Crime Fighters, saying she met the deceased in the pool of his own blood.
“…due to pressure and insistence of the security operatives that nobody entered the room apart from the two, I resolved that since no one believed me, let me just take the blame.”
A service of songs was conducted on Thursday for the deceased in Victoria Island, Lagos as part of his two-day funeral event.
Gatekeepers News reports that Sylvia, in her tribute, said: “God knows he did not deserve what those people did to him. My heart bleeds to him anytime I remember. He was generous to a fault. It took death for me to know how loved he was” she said.
“He has been robbed of the joy of seeing a project he spent seven years working on.
“He has been denied the joy of seeing his children grow up, go to the university, get married and make him a grandfather. These are the wishes of every parent. His love for his children cannot be quantified. No way!
“He would either hop on the next plane or send me funds to go and see the doctor. And monitor me for days. My pain is that I could not monitor him in his last days.”
Also paying her last respect, Usifo’s wife, Brenda Ataga, said the news of the Super TV boss’s demise was “heartbreaking”.
In her words: “Finding out of your demise was the worst news imaginable. My mind had raced through all the possibilities of where you were and what could have happened but death, death wasn’t an option.
“The girls and I were looking forward to seeing you, to celebrate your milestone. I had imagined how surprised you would be when you walked in to see a place set up for you. I had imagined the infectious smile.
“Now I’m yet to comprehend the stark reality that your life was cut short in your prime, at a renaissance of all you had toiled for. I’m lost for words.”
