A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court on Tuesday in Abuja struck out criminal charges filed against the Chairman of Hilton Hotels, Ile Ife, Osun State, High Chief Rahman Adedoyin and some of his workers on the murder of Timothy Adegoke, a postgraduate student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
The deceased student reportedly died under mysterious circumstances at Hilton Hotels, Ile-Ife, in November 2021 and was buried in a shallow grave leading to the arrest of the hotel owner along with some of his workers.
Justice Modupe Osho-Adebiyi, the trial judge, struck out the case when police lawyers requested that they needed to conduct further investigations into the murder of the student.
The Force Central Investigations Department (FCID) had filed criminal charges against Adedoyin accusing him of an attempted felony, conspiracy, unlawful interference with Adegoke’s corpse and tampering with the hotel’s receipt and CCTV camera with the intent to conceal evidence to prove that the deceased Adegoke lodged in the hotel.
The police allegedly excluded Adedoyin from the murder charge brought against his hotel workers and opted for a lesser charge against him.
However, counsel to the deceased family, Mr Femi Falana SAN, confirmed to newsmen that a new charge will be filed at the Osun State High Court, being a place where the alleged cause of action originated from.
Those charged with murder are 23-year-old Adedeji Adesola, Magdalene Chiefuna, 24; Adeniyi Aderogba and Oluwale Lawrence both 37 years old; Oyetunde Kazeem, 38; Adebayo Kunle, 35; while others are said to still be at large.
