The police have charged the owner of Hilton Royal Hotel Ramon Adedoyin and six others to an Abuja High Court over the circumstances surrounding the death of Timothy Adegoke.
Adegoke, a postgraduate student of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) reportedly died in the hotel on November 6, 2021.
A statement by the police on Tuesday said Adedoyin, the founder of Oduduwa University, is being charged with the offence of unlawful interference with a dead body.
The other six accused persons are charged with various offences ranging from murder, conspiracy, altering receipt, along with other stated offences.
They are Adedeji Adesola, 23, Magdalene Chiefuna, 24, Adeniyi Aderogba, 37, Oluwale Lawrence, 37, Oyetunde Kazeem, 38, Adebayo Kunle, 35 and others still at large.
The police accused Adedoyin of illegally disposing Adegoke’s body, altering and cancelling his payment receipt and the removal of the hotel’s CCTV cameras with intent to destroy evidence.
One of Adedoyin’s lawyers Abiodun Williams said the charges cleared Adedoyin of the allegations of murder and ritual killing peddled against him.
“We will like to restate, most emphatically, that Adedoyin ought not to have been dragged into this case in the first place. We will, therefore, leave the rest to the court to decide according to the proof of evidence placed before it,” he said.
