According to Nigeria’s Osun State Chief Judge, Justice Oyebola Ojo, Dr. Rahman Adedoyin, the owner of the Hilton Hotel Ile-Ife, where Timothy Adegoke, a postgraduate student at Obafemi Awolowo University, was assassinated, should be hanged.
Adegoke vanished in November 2021 after staying at the Hilton Hotel.
According to the facts of the case presented by the prosecution attorney, Femi Falana, SAN, the hotel owner and two of his employees were found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and unlawful death of the dead, the Chief Judge stated in her ruling.
In order to arrive early for his exam at the OAU Distance Learning Centre, Moro, Osun State, on November 6 and November 7, 2021, Adegoke slept at the Hilton Hotels and Resorts in Ile-Ife upon his arrival from Abuja on November 5, 2021, according to SaharaReporters.
The police launched an inquiry after his family called the police, and as a result, Rahman Adedoyin, the hotel’s owner, and six other staff members were taken into custody. Raheem Adedoyin, son of the owner and the hotel’s managing director, is, however, missing.
The Story
According to media reports, Mr. Timothy Adegoke, a Master’s degree candidate at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, had stayed at a Hilton Hotel and Resort upon his arrival from Abuja on November 5 so that he could arrive early for his exam at an OAU distance learning center.
That was the last time he was reported. The following day, his wife tried to call him, but there was no answer because the phone kept ringing nonstop. She got in touch with her family members, who in turn contacted the OAU officials, who informed them that Adegoke had not taken the MBA exam he had come for.
When the police were called, it was discovered that Adegoke had transferred N37,000 (the cost of his hotel stay for two nights) into the account of one Adedeji Tobiloba Adesola, a female hotel employee. Despite the fact that the hotel had been his choice because he had previously been there for exams, the hotel manager apparently denied that Adegoke had remained there for the exam on November 6.
When Adesola was eventually arrested, she admitted to having given Adegoke a room in the hotel on November 5 in Room 305. Six additional suspects, including the hotel’s owner, were reportedly detained as a result of her confession.
The body of Timothy Adegoke was discovered in the bushes on Ile-Ife-Ede Road on Thursday, according to Mr. Adeniyi Aderogba, a senior staff of the hotel in question. On November 7, 2021, between 11 p.m. and 12 a.m., according to Aderogba.
Aderogba claimed Raheem Adedoyin, the owner of the hotel had told him that the police had been notified of Timothy Adegoke’s passing and had given them the go-ahead to transfer the body to the mortuary. The deceased Adegoke’s body was taken from Room 305 by him, Raheem Adedoyin, and Kazeem Oyetunde, who then drove them to Ede Road where they abandoned the body along with the deceased’s laptop, phone, and bag. However, during cross-examination, Mr. M. O. Omosun, who represented Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), the prosecution’s attorney, questioned Aderogba on whether the location where Adegoke’s body was dumped resembled a morgue. He gave a negative response.
Aderogba who said that he confirmed that Adegoke was dead was asked whether he called a doctor to confirm the death. He said no.
Mr. Omosun further asked him if he found blood coming out of the nose of the deceased when he examined the body. When he denied seeing that, the lawyer made him read his statement to the police where he said that when he visited Room 305, he saw Adegoke’s body with blood coming out of his nose. Under cross-examination, Aderogba also admitted that the CCTV in the hotel was disconnected by Raheem Adedoyin after the death of Adegoke.
Aderogba was asked whether the key to Room 305 is electronic or manual, and he said it was manual. Mr. Omosun asked him to state how possible it was to use a spare key from the outside to open the door that had been locked from the inside. At that stage, he said, “I don’t know.”
Aderogba said that the mattress in Room 305 was removed to dry it. But his attention was drawn to his statement where he had written that “we carry (sic) mattress from the room and burnt it.”
Another defendant, Oyerinde Kazeem, who also gave evidence for himself admitted that he was involved in the evacuation and dumping of the body of Adegoke in the bush. Kazeem, who had given the impression that it was Raheem alone that carried the body of Adegoke from Room 305 to the vehicle admitted that “we dumped the body in the bush on Ede Road”.
A receptionist at the hotel, Magdalena Chiefuna, told the court that the management of the hotel asked all staff members to delete pictures taken on their phones after the body of the deceased was found.
Chiefuna said the staff members of the hotel were made to swear an oath not to disclose what happened regarding Adegoke’s death. She also told the Osun State High Court on Wednesday that no doctor was called and that the police were not notified about the discovery of the body of the deceased.
