Justice crawls slowly, but surely, as the Court of Appeal sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital has upheld the death sentence of a popular hotelier, Dr Ramon Adedoyin, who was found guilty in the murder case of Timothy Adegoke, a former Master’s student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
According to the court’s judgment on Thursday, the appellate court noted that the judgment by the Osun State High Court which sentenced Adedoyin to death still stands.
The appeal court had reserved the judgment on October 29, 2024.
The judgement read in parts, “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.”
It further noted that the “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.”
THE BACKSTORY
Adegoke lodged at Adedoyin’s Hilton Hotels and Resorts in Ile-Ife, Osun State upon his arrival from Abuja on November 5, 2021, to enable him to arrive early for his examination at the OAU Distance Learning Centre, Moro, in the state, on November 6 and 7, 2021.
He later went missing and was found dead and buried in a shallow grave following an investigation by the police in November 2021.