Chidinma’s volte face comes a few weeks after she initially accepted responsibility for stabbing Ataga to death with a kitchen knife for attempting to force his way with her to have a second round of sex she had not been in the mood for.
Ataga was found dead days after checking with the suspect into a Lekki, Lagos, short-rest lodging.
The suspect had fled the scene of the crime until she was arrested at her father’s house in Yaba, Lagos.
Chidinma had allegedly been in a romantic relationship with the 50-year-old Ataga for about four months before the incident.
The undergraduate, in her confessional statement when she was paraded by the police, said she and Ataga were “having fun” when an argument broke out and she stabbed him twice.
But Chidinma, in a recent interview with Crime Fighters, said she admitted to killing Ataga at the time because of pressure and the fact that nobody believed her.
The undergraduate also claimed she had met the deceased in a pool of his blood when she returned from where she had gone to get their food and drugs for.
She now said: “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.
“I believe someone knew where we were and waited till I left before they entered. 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.
“No one is influencing my statements. I have not spoken to anyone since my arrest, not even my relation or anybody close to me
“I just withdrew the money because he had already promised me, it’s not like I had anything to do with his death. I don’t have anything to do with his death.”
(This story excluding headline contains information from THEWILL)