Timothy Adegoke: Victim’s Family Allegedly Offered N120m For Settlement

Gbade, elder brother to the late Masters’ student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Timothy Adegoke, has said he was approached by one Idmund on the telephone phone to accept N50 million, while wife of the deceased, was offered N70 million to settle the matter.

The deceased’s elder brother stated this on Monday while testifying before Justice Adepele Ojo of the Osun State High Court, Osogbo. He however said Dr Rahmon Adedoyin did not personally offer him money.

He added that he saw blood stains on the wall of the room where his brother lodged at Hilton Hotel, Ile-Ife when he and some operatives inspected the room.

Gbade, the third prosecution witness, while being led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, M. Omosun, also said he observed during the visit that the door to the room was damaged and repaired.

But while being cross examined by Mr K. Eleja, SAN, counsel for the hotel’s owner, Adedoyin, he admitted not writing that there were blood stains on the wall and that the door to the room was damaged in the two statements he wrote before the police, which were earlier admitted as evidence by the court.

According to Gbade, the receptionist on duty the day late Adegoke lodged in the hotel, Adesola Adedeji, told Investigative Police Officer in charge of the case that the hotel’s lodgers’ register had been doctored.

Giving her testimony before the court, wife of the deceased, Bolatito, who could not control her emotion and broke down in tears, said the last meal eaten by her husband was the one he ate in the evening of Friday, November 4.

She also insisted that her husband was not sick, and while being cross examined by one of the defence counsel, Kunle Adegoke, SAN, on why she was making frequent calls to her husband, Bolatito said calls to her husband on the day the incident happened were not unusually persistent.

Also testifying before the court, Adetola Adewoyin, a relation to the late Adegoke, also said she was contacted by the deceased’s wife to assist her in checking the campus where her husband was supposed to sit for examination when she could not reach him on the telephone.

Earlier, Justice Adepele Ojo, in her ruling on the bail applications of all the seven defendants namely; Adedoyin, Adedeji Adesola, Magdalene Chiefuna, Adeniyi Aderogba, Oluwale Lawrence, Oyetunde Kazeem and Adebayo Kunle, dismissed the applications.

Ojo said the health reasons that the applications were based, could not be relied on as the defendants’ health could not be said to be threatened with their detention.

Justice Ojo, after listening to the testimonies of the three prosecution witnesses in the proceedings which lasted about six hours, adjourned the matter till Tuesday for continuation of hearing.