A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory sitting at Gudu, yesterday, struck out the charge against the owner of Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Rahman Adedoyin and six of his workers accused of complicity in the murder of a postgraduate student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Timothy Adegoke.
Justice Modupe Osho-Adebiyi struck out the charge marked CR/015/2022 after it was withdrawn by the Nigeria Police Force.
Police said it decided to discontinue the matter to enable it to conduct further investigations into the murder case. The notice of discontinuation was hinged on section 108 of the Administration of Criminal Act, ACJA, 2015.
Aside from Adedoyin, other defendants in the charge that was struck out by the court were Adedeji Adesola, 23; Magdalene Chiefuna, 24; Adeniyi Aderogba, 37; Oluwale Lawrence, 37; Oyetunde Kazeem, 38; and Adebayo Kunle, 35.
Police told the court that other persons that were involved in the murder, were still at large.
The deceased, Adegoke, who visited his school to write an exam, died in a controversial circumstance after he lodged at Adedoyin’s hotel.
He was allegedly later buried in a shallow grave by the hotel management without the knowledge of either his family or any security agency.
All the Defendants were after their arrest, moved from Osun State to Abuja for investigation and trial.
They were specifically accused of murder, illegal disposing of Adegoke’s body, altering and cancelling his payment receipt, as well as removing the hotel’s CCTV cameras with intent to destroy evidence.
The family of the deceased student had recently engaged a foremost human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, to handle the matter on their behalf.
Upon his engagement, Falana, wrote the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, requesting that the case against the Defendants should be transferred from Abuja to Osun state for prosecution.
The senior lawyer contended that criminal offences the Defendants were charged with were committed at Ile-Ife and not in Abuja.
He, therefore, argued that the Defendants ought to be tried before a court of competent jurisdiction in Osun state.
