The Court of Appeal sitting in Akure, Ondo State, has upheld the death sentence of a popular hotel owner, Dr. Ramon Adedoyin, who was found guilty in the murder case of an ex-master’s student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Timothy Adegoke.
According to the court’s ruling on Thursday, the appellate court noted that the judgement by the Osun State High Court, which sentenced Adedoyin to death, stands.
The appeal court had reserved judgement on October 29, 2024.
The judgement read in parts, “The judgement of the High Court of Oṣun State stands. Adedoyin’s appeal is dismissed in part. The Court of Appeal held that Adedoyin was properly convicted and sentenced to death.”
It further noted that the “Order of forfeiture of Hilton Hotel was quashed and set aside. Order of education scholarship to children of Timothy Adegoke by Adedoyin and others quashed and set aside.”
Adegoke was found dead in November 2021 in Adedoyin’s Hilton Honours Hotel in Ile-Ife, where he had stayed.
On January 29, 2022, the late 37-year-old Master of Business Administration student was buried next to the house he built for his parents in the New Eruwa neighbourhood of Eruwa town, Ibarapa East Local Government Area, Oyo State.
He was mourned by family, friends, and beneficiaries. His widow, Bolatito, cried hysterically and refused to leave the gravesite, despite appeals to do so.
In March of the same year, Afeez Olaniyan, the investigative police officer who led the initial investigation into Adegoke’s death, described how several defendants charged with the deceased’s killing evacuated and dumped his (Adegoke’s) corpse in the bush.
During the continuation of the trial, M. Omosun, the prosecution counsel, led Olaniyan in evidence. According to the statement extracted from two Hilton Hotel employees, Adeniyi Aderogba and Oyetunde Kazeem, after the death of the late Adegoke, his corpse was wrapped in a duvet and taken out in a Hilux van driven by the hotel owner’s son, Roheem Adedoyin, to where it was dumped.
Dr. Waheed Oluogun, a consultant pathologist at the Osun State University Teaching Hospital in Osogbo, stated that Adegoke died as a result of a major haemorrhage induced by severe trauma.
