THE Nigeria Police has asked the Gudu Division of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, sitting in Apo, Abuja, to strike out the case of the alleged murder of Timothy Adegoke, a postgraduate student of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, Osun State who was reportedly murdered in November last year at Hilton Honour Hotel and Resorts, Ile Ife.
The police said it asked the court to discontinue the case so as to further carry out detailed investigation on the murder.
Following an application for discontinuance of the case on Tuesday by the prosecuting counsel, Mr Ochogwu Ogbe, the presiding judge, the Honourable Justice Modupe Osho-Adebiyi, issued an order striking out the charges filed in connection to Adegoke’s alleged murder. Mr Ogbe said the application was in view of some “new facts” found concerning the case.
“Take notice that the complainant discontinues all the proceedings in the case against the defendants for further investigation,” part of the prosecution’s court filing read. Justice Osho-Adebiyi, subsequently struck out the case on the basis of the application. “Since the prosecutor has applied for a discontinuance of case and the defendants are not opposing the application, I hereby struck out the case,” the judge ruled.
It was not clear if the defendants, Rahmon Adedoyin, the owner of Hilton Honour Hotel and Resorts, Ile Ife, where Mr Adegoke was allegedly murdered in November, 2021 along with others would be released during the period of further investigation.
Adedoyin was charged with attempted felony, conspiracy, unlawful interference with Adegoke’s corpse, and tampering with the hotel’s receipt and CCTV camera with the intent to destroy evidence that would prove that Adegoke visited the hotel.
Other suspects charged alongside Adedoyin include Adedeji Adesola, 23; Magdalene Chiefuna, 24; Adeniyi Aderogba, 37; Oluwale Lawrence, 37, Oyetunde Kazeem, 38; Adebayo Kunle, 35, and others at large, which include Prince Rahim Adedoyin, Esther Asifo and Quadiri Moshood.
The decision by the police to withdraw the charges came on the heels of the request by the Adegoke family lawyer, Femi Falana’s request for the case to be transferred to Ile Ife in Osun State, where the alleged murder was committed.
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), had asked the Inspector General of Police, Mr Usman Baba, to transfer the suspects from the Abuja court to a competent court in Osun State. Falana (SAN), who is offering legal services to the family of the deceased Master’s student of OAU free of charge, made the request in a letter dated February 4, 2022, where he argued that the alleged 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.
Adegoke died in controversial circumstances where he lodged at the Hilton Hotel and Resort in Ile Ife, Osun State, to sit for an examination at the OAU Distance Learning Centre, Moro Campus, when he was declared missing on November 7, 2021. He was alleged to have been subsequently buried by the hotel’s management in a shallow grave without the knowledge of his family or the police. His body was said to have been discovered after some suspects, including workers at the hotel, were arrested by the police for questioning.
The police had stepped into the matter, and in January, charged the owner of the hotel, Rahmon Adedoyin, and six others over Adegoke’s death.
