One of the workers at Hilton Hotel where a postgraduate student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Timothy Adegoke, was allegedly murdered has said the management of the hotel asked all staff members to delete pictures taken on their phones after the body of the deceased was found.
Magdalena Chiefuna, the hotel employee, said the staff members of the hotel were made to swear an oath not to disclose what happened regarding Adegoke’s death.
She also told the Osun State High Court on Wednesday that no doctor was called and that the police were not notified about the discovery of the body of the deceased.
In her evidence, the second defendant, Chiefuna, said she was on duty on November 6, 2021, and gave evidence of how the body of the deceased was found in Room 305 of the hotel.
Under cross-examination by human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), the witness said that the deceased was found dead on November 7 but that a doctor was not called to attend to him or pronounce him dead.
He also said the death was not reported to the police as they took an oath of confidentiality in order to protect the hotel business.
She also admitted that she and some staff members were summoned to the house of the first defendant, Dr. Ramon Adedoyin (hotel owner), who asked the receptionists to delete the pictures of the accounts captured on their telephones.
Even though the Managing Director of the hotel, Raheem Adedoyin asked them to deny that the deceased lodged in the hotel, she disclosed all that happened to the police when she was arrested on November 12.
Answering another question by Mr. Falana, the witness said she did not know whether the receipt of the money paid for two nights by the deceased had been submitted to the police by the hotel management. The witness said that Dr. Adedoyin did not visit the hotel even though he was informed of the death of the deceased on November 7.
Also, Professor S.O. Ojo, who gave evidence for the defence, was part of the team of 8 pathologists who conducted the autopsy on the body of Adegoke.
He was led in evidence by the counsel for the second defendant, Mr. Kunle Adegoke (SAN). In his evidence-in-chief, Ojo said that he ruled out violence as the cause of death.
But under cross-examination by Mr. Femi Falana SAN, Ojo said that he could not say anatomically if the “deceased died of a natural cause”.
When Mr. Falana SAN drew his attention to the report of Dr. Waheed Oluogun who supervised the exhumation of the body of Adegoke, Ojo said that he could not comment on the report as he did not witness the exhumation.
Mr. Falana then asked him to read the aspect of Dr. Oluogun’s pathology report where he said that the body of Adegoke was wrapped with a blood-stained duvet without exposure to any part of the body and that Adegoke was found in a supine position with two different types of ropes around his ankles and the neck. But Ojo insisted that he was not involved in the exhumation of the body.
The cross-examination of the witness by other defence counsel will continue on Thursday.
