‘He didn’t deserve to die’ — Super TV CEO’s mum mourns at funeral

Sylvia Ataga, the mother of Usifo Ataga, the deceased CEO of Super TV, says the late media entrepreneur didn’t deserve to die.

Usifo was stabbed to death and left in the pool of his own blood inside a Lagos hotel last month.

Chidinma Ojukwu, a 21-year-old student of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), was thereafter arrested in connection with the case.

On Thursday, a service of songs was held for the deceased in Victoria Island, Lagos as part of his two-day funeral event.

As the attendees paid their last respect to the Super TV CEO, Sylvia, in her tribute, said her son died “an undeserved death”.

“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.”

In her own tribute, Brenda Ataga, Usifo’s wife, described the Super TV boss’s demise as “heartbreaking”.

“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,” she added.

“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.”

Chidinma had on June 24 confessed to stabbing Usifo “twice on the neck side”. She had alleged that the businessman forcefully had sex with her the first time but a dispute ensued after he attempted it again.

“At some point, he was chasing me around the kitchen cabinet. 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 said.

But in a dramatic twist, Chidinma denied her initial confession that she killed the Super TV CEO.

“I didn’t involve anybody. I don’t know who must have come into the apartment. Definitely, somebody did that but I don’t know who that person is. I don’t know what happened when I left the room to buy food. Because of what I did after by not alerting the police and also withdrawing money from his account, I feel guilty for what happened but I did not kill him,” she had said a few weeks after claiming responsibility for his death.