One of the receptionists at Hilton Hotels and Resort, Ile-Ife, Adedeji Adesola, on Friday narrated how the management of the hotel attempted to cover up the death of Timothy Adegoke.
The Master’s student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife was allegedly murdered in the hotel on November 5, 2021.
Mrs Adesola who appeared as a witness before the Osun State High Court in Osogbo said the deceased student’s name was removed from the hotel guest record in order to cover the fact that he lodged in the hotel.
The receptionist who attended to the late student told the court that he was booked into Room 305 after making payment for the accommodation.
Mrs Adesola, who was cross-examined by Femi Falana SAN, and four other counsel handling the case, said after the news of his death broke, she was called to a meeting where the hotel managing director, Roheem Adedoyin, told her to fabricate another receipt which will not show name of the late student.
The receptionist who is the seventh defendant on the case added that Mr Adedoyin influenced her to replace the late student name with Adewale Lekan and receipt number 7316.
“I was at Ilesha when I received a call from Esther, one of the workers of the hotel, that there was an urgent meeting at the chairman’s house. I told her that I was not around to attend the meeting. Few minutes later, another person called me again saying that I must attend the meeting. When I enquired why I must attend the meeting, he said it was because a receipt was missing, then I said I don’t know how it got missing. I later told Esther to send me the address of the chairman’s house and I went there,” she said.
“When I got there, Prince Roheem came to me and requested that I follow him to a place within the compound. After we got there, he told me that a receipt was missing, then I told him I don’t know anything about the missing receipt because I balanced my account to the auditor before I left the hotel,” the receptionist added.
“Prince Roheem then told me that he is my boss and he will not lie to me and that he will protect me. He gave me a blank receipt of the hotel and he wrote a name on a separate paper which said I should write the name on the receipt and sign on the receipt. The name he wrote on the paper was Adewale Lekan and nobody bears that name in the list of people who lodged in the hotel on that day,” she stated .
“I obliged because I felt they were trying to cover up a fraud and since he is my boss and it was the hotel receipt and he said he was protecting me. After signing the receipt, he collected it back from me.”
Mrs Adesola said the fabrication of receipts was done in the house of the owner of the hotel, Rahmon Adedoyin.
“We fabricated the receipt in Dr. Rahmon Adedoyin ‘s compound. Although, he was not within the place we had the discussion.”
Justice Adepele Ojo adjourned the case till February 2023 for the witness who will testify in support of the first defendant, Rahmon Adedoyin, to appear before the court.
Witness absent
Friday’s sitting was the third time that a police officer who was supposed to testify in support of the owner of the hotel failed to show up in court
When the absence of the security officer first stalled the case, counsel to the owner of the hotel, K.K Eleja, said the officer was on official duty.
The matter was later adjourned to 15 December but when the case was mentioned, the counsel pleaded adjournment again on the ground that the witness was absent and promised to ensure he was present at the next adjourned date.
But at Friday’s sitting again, the witness was not in court.
Mr Eleja said the officer was not in court because he needs to take permission from authorities of the police.
He therefore pleaded for adjournment to enable him to persuade the witness to appear in court.
Justice Ojo, who is the Chief Judge of Osun State, urged the counsel to ensure the witness appears before the court at the next adjourned date or inform the court ahead if the witness will not be able to appear in court.
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