- Adegokes frustrating investigations — Hotel owner’s lawyers
- We got autopsy information late — family insists
- Deceased’s corpse not in our morgue — OAUTHC
BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – As the public awaits more information on circumstances surrounding the death of Timothy Adegoke, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, counsel to the detained owner of Hilton Hotel and Resorts, Ile-Ife, Mr. William Abiodun, has accused the deceased family of frustrating Police investigation on the matter.
The body of Adegoke was found a penultimate weekend where it was dumped after allegedly dying in the hotel owned by Dr Rahmon Adegoke Adedoyin, an educationist and businessman.
Adedoyin, who is the founder and proprietor of Oduduwa University and The Polytechnic, Ile-Ife as well as five of his employees in the hotel are currently facing Police interrogation over the matter.
In a statement at the weekend, the lawyer, Abiodun claimed that Adegoke’s relatives refused to turn up for the autopsy scheduled for late Friday even after they were duly notified and had given their consent to be present.
He said the autopsy would have helped to put an end to speculations about how Adegoke died and whether any part of his body is missing as alleged by some people.
“What could have been a giant step towards unravelling the cause of Adegoke’s death was frustrated by his family”, The legal practitioner alleged.
According to him, all parties in the dispute had agreed with the Police for the conduct of the autopsy on Friday only for the Adegokes to keep away at the last minute.
He said a team of independent pathologists led by professors had arrived from Abuja and Ilorin on Thursday in preparation for the autopsy which was scheduled to commence by 9 am on Friday, 19th November 2021.
Abiodun further stated that when the investigating team from the Osun State Police Command and the pathologists arrived at 9 am, members of the deceased family were not available.
He said that Police officers handling the case called them repeatedly on the phone to know their whereabouts and their initial response was that they were stuck in traffic in Osogbo at about 12noon.
The lawyer however claimed that the Adegokes only called back about three hours later to say they were no longer coming, adding; “It is clear that this is a calculated attempt to frustrate investigations into the matter and establish the fact that Timothy Adegoke died of natural causes.
“The same brother spoke with The Nation and said the Police have not told him what killed his brother and the reason why they arrested Chief Ramon Adedoyin. If that is the case, why is he going about smearing his name?
“Justice is a tripartite triangle: justice to the victim, justice to the accused, and justice to the society whose norm is desecrated. There must be justice to all. Gbade Adegoke must be stopped in his campaign of calumny to smear Chief Adedoyin’s name.
“If they have nothing to hide, they should make themselves available for the autopsy to be conducted so that the whole world will know the truth.”
Abiodun appealed to Osun State Police Commissioner, Wale Olokode, to “display the highest professionalism in this matter and act according to the evidence and facts already established before the Police and not what rumour-mongers are spreading and be fair to all the parties.”
We were not informed about the autopsy – family’s lawyer
But amid the back and forth accusations, the late Adegoke’s family denied the allegation. Their counsel, Mr Babarinde Samson, said the family was not aware of any scheduled autopsy for Friday.
Samson said; “We were on our way to Osogbo yesterday (Friday) when the police informed us that they would carry out an autopsy on Adegoke on Friday. We demanded that we must have a pathologist from the family who must be part of the process.
“We told them that the autopsy should not be carried out without our pathologist on ground. This is very important to our case. We arrived at the Police command around 2 PM. We met with the Commissioner of Police on Friday and he said he was just informed that an autopsy should be conducted on Friday.
“It doesn’t make any sense to carry out autopsy without family representation. They informed us around 1 PM yesterday and we kicked against that.”
Thirty-seven-year-old Adegoke had travelled from his base in Abuja to Ile-Ife on Friday, November 5, 2021, to write his last examination.
Investigations so far revealed that the late Director of Finance at Xiamien Stone Limited, Abuja, flew from Abuja to Akure in Ondo State. His plane landed in the Ondo State capital at 3 pm.
Adegoke then proceeded to Ile-Ife by road, hitting the town at about 4.45 pm. He choose to lodge at Hilton Hotel and Resort located on the Ife-Ibadan expressway opposite Ife Central Local Government Area secretariat, booking a deluxe suite at N18,500 per night for two nights.
Meanwhile, the management of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTHC), has denied that the corpse of Mr Timothy Adegoke who died mysteriously at the Hilton Hotel and Resort, Ile-Ife was deposited in their morgue.
Police spokesperson, Superintendent of Police (SP) Yemisi Opalola, had claimed that the remains of Adegoke were deposited in OAUTHC after it was exhumed.
But a statement by the hospital’s Public Relations Officer, Kemi Fasooto, titled; ‘Disclaimer on the Current Case of Timothy Adegoke’, said; “The attention of the Management of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife, has been drawn to claim that the body of Timothy Adegoke was brought to the morgue of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex for autopsy.
“Please, we want to state that the body of the deceased was never deposited in our hospital for any coroner case.”
However, in a 46 seconds video made available to The Nation on Saturday night, Police spokesperson, Yemisi Opalola, retracted the information she provided earlier.
Speaking in vernacular (Yoruba language), Opalola said; “I want to state it categorically that the remains of Timothy Adegoke was deposited in Osun State University Teaching Hospital and not in OAUTCH.
“We (Police) are not covering any facts about this matter.” – With The Nation reports
