Justice Oyebisi Omoleye of the Court of Appeal, sitting in Akure, Ondo State, has upheld the death sentence judgment earlier handed out by the High Court in Osogbo, Osun State, to Rahmon Adedoyin, the owner of the hotel where Timothy Adegoke, an Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife student was murdered in November 2021.
Justice Omoleye, who delivered the judgement on Thursday, dismissed Adedoyin’s appeal and affirmed the verdict of the Osun State High Court, which had sentenced Adedoyin to death.
The Court of Appeal, which reserved its judgment on the matter on October 29, 2024, declared, “The judgment of the High Court of Osun State stands. Adedoyin’s appeal is dismissed in part. The Court of Appeal held that Adedoyin was properly convicted and sentenced to death.”
However, the appellate court set aside some aspects of the lower court’s orders. It ruled, “Order of forfeiture of Hilton Hotel quashed and set aside. Order of education scholarship to children of Timothy Adegoke by Adedoyin and others quashed and set aside.”
Adegoke’s death was reported in November 2021, after he was discovered lifeless at the Hilton Honours Hotel in Ile-Ife, where he had lodged.
BusinessDay reports that Adedoyin, alongside his two hotel staff, were found guilty by the Osun High Court in the murder case of Adegoke, whose death occurred between November 5 and 7, 2021, while staying at the hotel.
The court’s judgment relied heavily on circumstantial evidence, which pointed to the involvement of Adedoyin and his staff in the killing. The court noted that Adedoyin’s refusal to testify or provide an alibi weakened his defence.
The trial court had sentenced Adedoyin and two staff members, Adeniyi Aderogba and Oyetunde Kazeem, to death by hanging over their alleged roles in the disposal of Adegoke’s body from the hotel premises.
Dissatisfied with the verdict, Adedoyin and his co-defendants approached the Appeal Court, seeking to overturn the High Court’s judgment.
But counsel to the respondents, Femi Falana, while speaking with journalists after the judgement clarified that the court upheld the conviction by the trial court for those various offences.
Falana, who was represented by Fatima Adesina, noted that for the offences of conspiracy to kill, unlawful killing, accessory after the fact and some other various offences, the judgment of the Appellate Court has upheld the conviction by the trial court for those various offenses.
He said the Court has quashed certain aspects of the decision of the trial court, especially the decision that relates to the order of the trial court mandating the respondent, the convicts, to be responsible for the education of the children of the deceased Timothy Adegoke.
“It means that the conviction by the trial court that the defendants were guilty of conspiracy to kill and for unlawfully killing Timothy Adegoke with tampering or interfering with his dead body has been upheld.
“The Court also held that for convictions, the jurisdiction of the Court is limited to the statutory provisions as to the penalty provided by the law. So the statutory provision is either the Court.
“The trial court complies with the maximum penalty or the minimum. So anything outside the two, the Court will not have jurisdiction to so do.
“So on that basis, the conviction of the appellant, Dr. Rahman Adedoyin, will be responsible for the education of the deceased. But the forfeiture of his property to the state government has been quashed by the Court of Appeal,” Falana said.
On January 29, 2022, the late 37-year-old Master of Business Administration student was buried beside the house he built for his parents in the New Eruwa part of Eruwa town, the Ibarapa East Local Government Area of Oyo State.
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