The Nigeria Police Force has withdrawn a case against the owner of Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Ile-Ife, Rahmon Adedoyin, and six others, charged with the murder of Timothy Adegoke, who died in the hotel on November 6, 2021.
The police had told an Abuja High Court on Monday that the Force wished to discontinue all proceedings in the murder case for “further investigation.”
Charged alongside Adedoyin, the proprietor of Oduduwa University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, are Adedeji Adesola, 23; Magdalene Chiefuna, 24; Adeniyi Aderogba, 37; Oluwale Lawrence, 37; Oyetunde Kazeem, 38; Adebayo Kunle, 35, and others still at large.
Recall that the police had moved Adedoyin and the six others from Osun State to Abuja for investigation and prosecution.
The case summary and proof of evidence, earlier filed by the police, revealed that Adedoyin is being charged with illegally disposing off of Adegoke’s body, altering and cancelling his payment receipt and removal of the hotel’s CCTV cameras, with intent to destroy evidence.
However, in a ‘Notice of Discontinuation of Charge No.CR/015/2022, brought pursuant to Section 108 of Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015,’ 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, FCIID, Abuja.
One of the counsels for the defendants, Yusuf Alli, SAN, confirmed the development to our correspondent on Tuesday.
Subsequently, the presiding judge, Justice Module Adebiyi, struck out the case against Adedoyin and others on Tuesday, following the application for notice of discontinuance by the police.
The student had died in controversial circumstances, when he lodged at the hotel to sit for an examination. He was subsequently buried by the hotel management in a shallow grave, without the knowledge of his family or the police.
Meanwhile 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 of juriadiction in Osun State.
Falana, the counsel 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 Advocate of Nigeria had argued that the criminal offences were said to have been committed at Ile-Ife, Osun State; and that the suspects ought to have been charged before a court of competent jurisdiction in Osun Sttae.
