The Osun State High Court has condemned Dr Ramon Adedoyin, the Hilton Hotel founder, to death by hanging along with two hotel employees, Adeniyi Aderogba and Kazeem Oyetunde, for the murder of Timothy Adegoke, an Obafemi Awolowo University student, in Ile-Ife.
Three members of the staff were fired and cleared by Justice Adepele Ojo during the hearing, but the seven defendants will hear their sentencing on Wednesday as a result of appeals from the defence and prosecution attorneys.
As the first through seventh defendants, Adedoyin was charged alongside six of his employees, including Magdalene Chiefuna, Adeniyi Aderogba, Oluwole Lawrence, Oyetunde Kazeem Adebayo Kunle, and Adedeji Adesola. They were each charged with 18 counts, including murder, conspiracy, and breaching an oath of secrecy.
Magdalene Chiefuna, Lawrence Oluwole, and Adedeji Adesola were exonerated of the charges of murder and murder plot by Chief Judge of the State Justice Adepele Ojo in her ruling on Tuesday.
They were found guilty of the charge’s other charges, though.
Adedoyin was found guilty of counts 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 15, and 16 and was sentenced accordingly.
The court determined that the second autopsy report, which was written by two pathologists from the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, was invalid because “it is a report by persons with vested interests,” according to the court.
Justice Ojo proved that the late Timothy Adegoke stayed at the Hilton hotel and made deposits into the 7th defendant’s account.
“I concluded that Ramon Adedoyin, the first defendant, was guilty of both the conspiracy and the murder.”
Oyetunde Kazeem was convicted of the counts after the court ruled that the evidence put him “squarely among those who perpetrated the acts”
Adedeji Adesola, the seventh defendant, was “carefully choreographed into the act.” She wasn’t guilty of counts 1, 2, or 3 due to the circumstances around her.
The first, third, and fifth offenders were found guilty as charged for conspiring to unlawfully and indecently dispose of a deceased person’s body.