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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Osun State Governor, Sen Ademola Adeleke, has debunked the rumours making the round on social media that he is planning to nullify the death sentence on Dr Rahmon Adedoyin, the killer of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) master’s student, Timothy Adegoke.
Adegoke was found dead at Adedoyin’s Hilton Hotel, Ile-Ife, in November 2021, where he (the deceased) had lodged.
In a judgement delivered on May 31, the Chief Judge of Osun State, Justice Adepele Ojo, pronounced Adedoyin and two staff of the hotel guilty of murder.
Ojo held that the circumstantial evidence available to the court pointed to the killing of Adegoke while being a guest at the hotel owned by Adedoyin.
Reacting to the news, the spokesperson for Adeleke, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, in a statement on Monday, affirmed that there is no plan to pardon Adedoyin, who is also the owner of Oduduwa University, Ile Ife.
Adeleke noted that his administration has not and will never intervene in the judicial process, labelling those behind the fake news as public enemies.
“Those who concocted the fake news are evil-minded political operatives who are merely grasping at straws in their desperation to blackmail the state governor.
“Governor Adeleke has not and will never contemplate exercising the prerogative of mercy or whatever the report calls it, on a matter under adjudication which has generated deep interest among local and global communities,” the governor said.
Adeleke added that he has no hidden plot on the said murder, other than the public interest agenda to see that culprits in the dastardly act face the full wrath of the law.
“No PDP member is involved as counsel for any of the convicted individuals and the state judiciary must enjoy and exercise its full independence in the hearing and judgement of cases.
“It is uncharitable for political enemies and their paid agents to attempt any linkage between the convicted businessman and the governor.
“We affirm with all sense of responsibility that Governor Adeleke is not at any material time a friend or partner of the owner of Oduduwa University and did not interfere, intervene or manifest any untoward agenda in the arraignment, hearing and sentencing of the accused,” Rasheed added.
The governor urged members of the public to ignore the repeated rumours of state pardon for the convict.
