The Nigeria Police Force has withdrawn a case against the owner of Hotels and Resorts, Ile-Ife, Rahmon Adedoyin, and six others charged with the murder of Timothy Adegoke, who died at the hotel on November 6, 2021.
The PUNCH learnt that the police told an Abuja High Court on Monday that the Force wished to discontinue all proceedings in the murder case for “further investigation”.
Others charged with the educationist 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 is being 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’, 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 our correspondent on Tuesday.
Justice Module Adebiyi of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, subsequently struck out the case against Adegoke and others on Tuesday following the application for notice of discontinuance by the police.
The PUNCH had earlier reported that the student died in controversial circumstances where 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.
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.
Culled from the Punch