>
By Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Nigeria Police Force has withdrawn the murder case against the owner of Hilton Hotel and Resorts, Ile-Ife, Chief Rahmon Adedoyin; and six others charged with the murder of Timothy Adegoke, the Master’s student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, who died at the hotel on November 6, 2021.
It was gathered that the Police told an Abuja High Court on Monday that it wished to discontinue all proceedings in the murder case for “further investigations.”
Others charged with the Adedoyin are Adedeji Adesola, 23; Magdalene Chiefuna, 24; Adeniyi Aderogba, 37; Oluwale Lawrence, 37; Oyetunde Kazeem, 38; Adebayo Kunle, 35, and others still at large.
The Police had moved Adedoyin and the six others from Osun State to Abuja for investigation and prosecution.
According to the case summary and proof of evidence earlier filed by the Police, Adedoyin was charged with illegally disposing of Adegoke’s body, altering and cancelling his payment receipt and removal of the hotel’s CCTV cameras with intent to destroy evidence.
But in a ‘Notice of Discontinuation of Charge No.CR/015/2022 brought pursuant to Section 108 of Administration of Criminal Act 2015,’ filed on February 7, 2022, the police told the court to discontinue the matter.
“Take notice that the complainant discontinue all of the proceedings in this case against the above named defendants for further investigation,” said Ochogwu Ogbeh of the Legal and Prosecution Section of the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Abuja.
One of the counsels for the defendants, Yusuf Alli (SAN), confirmed the development to The PUNCH on Tuesday.
Adegoke died in controversial circumstances after lodging at the hotel. He was reportedly buried by the hotel management in a shallow grave without the knowledge of his family or police.
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, had asked the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, to transfer the suspects from the Abuja court to a competent court in Osun State.
Falana, who is the lawyer to the family of the deceased Master’s student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, made the request in a letter dated February 4, 2022.
The senior lawyer had argued that the criminal offences were said to have been committed at Ile-Ife and that the suspects ought to have been charged before a court of competent jurisdiction in Osun State.
Police withdrawing murder charge against Adedoyin? All involved in the plot–for that is what it is– as well as Adedoyin and his lawyers do not have to told the obvious. They will eternally be at war with whatever remains of their conscience. They are dastardly beasts.