Sam Philip
The judgement has been reserved by the Court of Appeal sitting in Akure on the appeal filed Mr. Ramon Adedoyin, who was sentenced to death by an Osun State High Court, Osogbo, over the death of a student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, the late Timothy Adegoke.
The late Timothy Adegoke, a master’s degree student of Obafemi Awolowo University, was allegedly killed in Hilton Hotels, Ile-Ife, owned by Mr. Adedoyin, when he lodged there.
Mr. Adedoyin and two members of staff of the hotel were however found guilty of the murder charge.
Adegoke was allegedly murdered between November 5 and 7, 2021, at the appellant’s hotel.
The High Court sitting in Osogbo had convicted Adedoyin based on circumstantial evidence available before the court that Adegoke was killed while he was a guest in the hotel owned by Adedoyin, shifting the burden of proof on him.
The lower court also held that Adedoyin’s decision not to enter the witness box meant he agreed to the murder charge pressed against him by the prosecution, dismissing the alibi pleaded on his behalf by his attorney, which said Adedoyin was away in Abuja around the time the death of the late Adegoke occurred.
Handing down his judgement, Justice Adepele Ojo therefore sentenced Adedoyin and two members of his staff, Adeniyi Aderogba and Oyetunde Kazeem, to death by hanging, over their alleged participation in the evacuation of the deceased from the hotel.
However, Adedoyin and the other convicts filed an appeal at the appellate court, praying the court to nullify the judgement of the lower court.
At the hearing of the appeal on Tuesday, Femi Falana, SAN, the attorney to the respondents, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, notified the court of his brief of argument dated January 17, 2024, praying the court to adopt his brief of argument and dismiss the appeal of the appellants.
He also prayed the court to uphold the judgment of the lower court based on the evidence presented by the prosecution.
Falana added that the defence of the appellant was irrelevant to the case before the court, arguing that circumstantial evidence proved that the appellant conspired with two others to commit of which they were sentenced.
“There is no doubt in the appellant’s involvement in the death of Adegoke. After the incident, Adedoyin assembled some of his staff to take the oath of secrecy, he took the said vehicle used to convey the deceased to his house in Abuja and he instructed his staff to cover up the entire circumstances surrounding the gruesome murder of the deceased,” Falana said.”
Falana, therefore, prayed the court to consider the evidence before it and the briefs of arguments in determining its judgement.
He urged the court to dismiss the appellants’ applications in the interest of justice.
But Adedoyin’s attorney, Mr. Kehinde Eleja, SAN, prayed the court to allow the appeal, saying no evidence was given to support the conviction.
He told that none of the witnesses called by the respondents during the trial gave any evidence or mentioned the name of appellants as part of the said offenses.
According to Eleja: “The appellant did not make any confessional statement during the trial, he did not call any witnesses because nothing was said against him. There was doubt in Adedoyin’s appearance in the hotel a day before the said occurrence.”
He, therefore, urged the court to allow the appeal and discharge and acquit the appellant of all the counts by which he was found guilty by the lower court.
However, the three-man panel, led by Justice Olufemi Akeju, reserved the judgment on the appeal after counsels of all the parties had adopted their written addresses, to a date that would be communicated to the parties.