Oyetunde Kazeem, a witness who is a staff of Hilton Honours Hotel, Ile-Ife on Thursday before Justice Adepele Ojo of Osun State High Court 1, Osogbo, denied stealing late Timothy Adekoge’s belongings after his remains were dumped inside the bush.
Led in evidence by his counsel, Murtala Abdulrasheed, the witness (Kazeem) said the owner of the hotel, Rahman Adedoyin, was not at the hotel premises on the day Adegoke lodged in the hotel, adding that fleeing Adedoyin’s son, Roheem, the Managing Director at the hotel, asked him (Kazeem) and two other staff members to accompany him to take the corpse to the mortuary.
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He said it was on their way that Roheem parked and dumped Adegoke’s remains alongside his laptop, bag, vovo phone and money beside him. On allegation that he conspired with Adedoyin Roheem to administer a fetish oath on other workers of the hotel, Kazeem denied taking or administering any oath, insisting that he neither dumped the corpse nor stole any of his belongings.
While being cross-examined by the prosecuting counsel, Femi Falana, the witness denied driving the Hilux vehicle, in which Adegoke’s remains were conveyed for the purpose of deposing it, saying that the vehicle belonged to Roheem.
The witness was also cross- examined by other defence counsel, including K. k. Eleja, Rowland Otaru and Okon Edet Ita. Further hearing on the matter continues today.
Recall that Mr Adegoke, a postgraduate student of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), reportedly lodged at the Hilton Hotel in Ile-Ife on November 5, 2021.
He had reportedly travelled to the university town of Ile-Ife to sit an examination at the OAU Distance Learning Centre, Moro campus, only to be declared missing on November 7, 2021, about two days after lodging at the hotel.
