Rights lawyer Femi Falana has got the permission of Osun State Government to prosecute all the seven defendants arraigned over the death of Timothy Adegoke, a postgraduate student of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife.
According to the police, Adegoke died at Hilton Hotel in Ile-Ife last year. His body was illegally disposed of by the hotel’s management. Adegoke’s family hired Falana in February to get justice for their son.
The hotel owner, Ramon Adedoyin, and six staff of the facility namely Adedeji Adesola, Magdalene Chiefuna, Adeniyi Aderogba, Oluwale Lawrence, Oyetunde Kazeem, and Adebayo Kunle are facing 11 counts bordering on conspiracy, murder, altering of receipt and administration of extrajudicial oath.
Osun State attorney-general and commissioner of justice Oluwafemi Akande in a statement disclosed that Falana, upon request by him and the family of the deceased, had been given permission to prosecute the matter.
The statement read, “On 1st April 2022, Femi Falana, SAN, applied to the Office of the Hon. Attorney General for fiat to take over the prosecution of the case. Thereafter, the deceased’s family wrote a letter to the Attorney General requesting for the Chambers of Femi FALANA SAN to be allowed to prosecute the matter.
“The learned silk’s letter and that of the family were immediately processed and the fiat requested for has since been granted. The Office of Chief Femi FALANA SAN had already collected the letter conveying the fiat of the Attorney General to the learned silk.
“The position as of today, in law, is that the office of Chief Femi FALANA SAN is in full charge of the prosecution of the case.”
The case will be reopened on April 25 after Justice Adepele Ojo of Osun State High Court 1, Osogbo rejected the defendants’ no-case submission.
