You have enough to prosecute suspects in Oludare’s death, Ajulo charges Police

•ICAN, Postmaster General demand justice
A lawyer and civil rights activist, Kayode Ajulo, has told the Nigeria Police that the confessional statements obtained from some of the suspects arrested in connection with the death of Timothy Adegoke Oludare, a Master’s of Business Administration student of  Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, are cogent enough to establish degrees of guilt of all the suspects.
 
The 37-year-old, father of three, who travelled from Abuja to Ile-Ife, Osun State on November 5, 2021, in furtherance of his studies, checked in at the Hilton and Resorts Hotel owned by Dr. Ramon Adedoyin, the founder of Oduduwa University on the same ill-fated day.  
 
He went missing for the next two days only for his dead and mutilated body to be found buried in a shallow grave near the hotel.
 
Ajulo, who is acting as solicitor to the family of the late father of three said: “We welcome with keen interest, the news of the arrest of six suspects linked to the gruesome murder of Mr. Timothy Adegoke Oludare Adegoke by men of the Osun State Police Command on November 15, 2021. Indeed, preliminary investigation, arrests and findings have nullified the initial apprehension that the deceased must have fallen into the hands of killer herdsmen which if true, could have exacerbated ethnic tensions in Osun State and beyond. ”
 

He said: “It is worrisome and sad that Mr. Oludare can be cut down in his prime for motives best known to his killers which of course, must be extracted and investigated by the Police without delay. It portends serious danger that a place meant to serve the temporary accommodation needs of Nigerians and non-Nigerians alike could in actual fact be a place where cold-blooded murders are orchestrated and carried out in the most desperate and daring manner. 

“Again, we note the temerity and the audacity in which the murder of the late Oludare was carried out as contained in the preliminary findings made by the Osun State Police Command. 
   
“According to the findings, our client’s son was strangled to death in his hotel room, his body was subsequently mutilated and wrapped in a blood-soaked blanket/bed sheet belonging to the hotel and finally buried in a shallow grave near the hotel.
 
“The law is clear that an offender(s) who causes the death of a person is guilty of murder under 316 of the Criminal Code Laws Cap 34, Laws of Osun State and same is punishable by death under Section 319 of the same law and it is our legally considered view that the confessional statements as obtained from some of the suspects are cogent enough to establish the varying degrees of guilt of all the suspects.
 
“As things stand, the hotel and its vicinity are a crime scene and should be treated as such, nothing must be on the way of a thorough and wider investigation of this highly reprehensible murder because nobody irrespective of their status or influence is bigger than the extant laws of the land.

“We, therefore, urge that no stone must be left unturned to get to the root of this matter. On our part, we are ready to partner the Police to ensure that justice is not only done but also seen to be done. While we trust that this matter will reach its expected legal conclusion, we want to reiterate that we will not hesitate for a second to do everything within legally permissible limits to fight anyone who attempts to frustrate the expected end of justice.”

Similarly, members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) have demanded justice for the death of Oludare .

In a letter dated November 20, 2021, ICAN members stated that justice must be served for the dead student, describing Adegoke as “our very own.”

The letter, titled, ‘Re: We Mourn Our Colleague- Adegoke, Timothy Oluwadamilare, ACA (MB35866)’ was signed by ‘Concerned Members of the Institute’ and addressed to the ICAN president.

MEANWHILE, the Postmaster General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Postal Service, Dr. Ismail Adebayo Adewusi, has assured family of the late Timothy Adegoke Oludare that justice would be pursued to its logical conclusion.
   
Adewusi, while visiting the mother of the deceased in the family compound in Eruwa, Oyo State, on Saturday evening, appealed to the family to be confident that the death of their son would not be swept under the carpet.
 
He said Oludare, who was his nephew, was a humble and focused professional as well as a pride to Eruwa.
   
The NIPOST CEO said the family will wait on the police to conduct its investigations diligently but said that the case will be one of those the police will use to demonstrate to Nigerians that no crime is beyond its capacity to unravel.
   

He said: “I have visited the family. Understandably, we are all still in shock. The deceased was my nephew. It’s painful that such a young and promising man would come to such a brutal end. But the law must take its course and we can only appeal to the police and all others along the line of justice to exhibit fairness and commitment to justice.”