By Salim Yunusa
More details are coming into light over the murder of a Masters student in a hotel owned by Dr Rahman Adedoyin, who owns Oduduwa University.
Two relations of the late Master of Business Administration student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Timothy Oludare have spoken on how the remains of the deceased were recovered from a shallow grave.
They said the deceased was found buried on the premises of Hilton Hotels and Resorts, owned by Dr Rahman Adedoyin, who also owns Oduduwa University.
One of the relations, a cousin of the deceased, Mr Gbade Adegoke, said Dr Adedoyin threatened to arrest Timothy’s brother, Gbade, after alleging that he constituted a nuisance to his hotel when the family was looking for him (Timothy) in the hotel.
Ogunlana said it was the family who contacted the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, which led the police chief to call Osun State Commissioner of Police, Olawole Olokode, before the death of his cousin was uncovered.
“It was the confessional statement of the lady staff member in the hotel, Adesola Tobiloba that led to the arrest of five others. The lady confessed that Manager 4 — the Alfa (Islamic cleric) — was always around any time they wanted to perform that act of killing. That he was in charge of the (murder) act.
“When the Alfa came, he wanted to exonerate himself. He said he left Ife on the 5th (of November). Police asked him where he went and he said he left for Ejigbo. And the police were able to track Timothy’s line to Ejigbo. It was Alfa’s confessional statement that led to where Timothy was buried.
“We noticed some kind of conspiracy on the part of the police. Alfa confessed that Timothy was not the first person they murdered this year. He was the fifth person. They were saying they knocked on the door and when it was not opened, they used the spare key to open it and found him dead. They now said they buried him. The police asked if they reported it, they said no.
“It was when we noticed the manner by which the police were carrying out the job that we began to talk to the media. They were trying to cover up,” Ogunlana said.
Speaking on the part played by the chairman of the hotel, Ogunlana alleged, “On Wednesday, when the brother of the deceased, Gbade brought the receipts of previous lodgings, the police went there with him and met the owner there. The owner said the fact that he (Timothy) came there the previous week did not mean he came there the following week. He said they didn’t see him that week. The brother called me and said ‘I’m in front of the owner of the hotel, they said he is a king, they said he is a prince. He is threatening to arrest me that I’m asking about the whereabouts of my brother.’
“That owner (Adedoyin) was threatening to arrest Timothy’s brother. He said he was constituting a nuisance to the hotel. Throughout that week, the owner was there. He was coming to that hotel.
The elders in our family called the Inspector-General of Police in Abuja before all these things started to come out. How they discovered his corpse, the police seemed to have known. They asked us if we could identify the corpse of the person we were looking for, we said yes. They brought out a shovel, so they dug the ground and brought out a carton according to them.
“They discovered in the carton that the deceased was wrapped with the duvet from the hotel. When they unwrapped it, they discovered it was the person that was missing. They didn’t unwrap him completely; they asked that he should be taken to the mortuary.
“The police were now reporting that the carton was not really big, he was squeezed. It was there they discovered that parts of the body had been mutilated and they did not allow any member of the family to see beyond the part they revealed. They just put it in the morgue there. Then, they came back, and ordered the arrest of the owner of the hotel.”
Another relative who spoke to SaharaReporters on condition of anonymity, said, “They have been able to arrest all the suspects, but the bad news is my brother has been brutally murdered, his body part mutilated/removed in what looks like a ritual killing. And he was buried in a shallow grave near the hotel he lodged in Ile-Ife.
“The intriguing part of the story is that he was not kidnapped from the airport as earlier insinuated; he was killed in the hotel where he lodged. The Hilton and Resorts Hotel where he lodged belongs to Mr Rahman Adedoyin (Maye of Ife), the owner of Oduduwa University in Ile-Ife.
“Initially, when we approached the hotel to ask about him, they denied that he was their guest for the weekend. The owner of the hotel (Adedoyin) vehemently dismissed Timothy. “However, upon police investigation, the Police established that Timothy paid for the hotel and lodged there for the night. Also, they located his mutilated corpse wrapped in a blood-soaked blanket/bed sheet belonging to the hotel and buried in a shallow grave near the hotel.”
SaharaReporters contacted Osun Police Command spokesperson, Yemisi Opalola, and she said, “Nobody told us that. We were told that the hotel was just bought not even up to two years ago. We were still in Ife yesterday carrying out investigation on the case till 1 am today. And from our findings, the hotel was just established not up to two years. So, how can people be dying like five or six persons within two years and people will still be going there?
“And for the people that are working there that know they are already in problem, that we have arrested; from their confession, they said people were carrying rumours. So one of the staff members there that has been working with them for long has not said nothing of such.”
Culled from Sahelian Times