BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Osun State governor, Ademola Adeleke, has debunked claims that he plans to pardon Rahman Adedoyin who was sentenced to death by hanging.
Adedoyin, the founder of Oduduwa University, was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging by the Osun State High Court for the murder of Timothy Adegoke, an Obafemi Awolowo University postgraduate student, between November 5 and 7, 2021, at Adedoyin’s Hilton Honours Hotel in Ile-Ife.
Adeleke’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, said in a statement on Monday that there was no plan to pardon the proprietor of Oduduwa University.
Rasheed noted that Governor Adeleke, during his administration, has never intervened in the judicial process and will never do so, labeling those behind the fake news as public enemies.
He stated that those behind the fake news were evil-minded political operatives grasping at straws in their desperate attempt to blackmail the state governor.
“Governor Adeleke has not and will never contemplate exercising the prerogative of mercy or whatever the report calls it, on a matter under adjudication which has generated deep interest among local and global communities,” Rasheed said.
According to him, neither Governor Adeleke nor his political party, the People’s Democratic Party, had any hidden plot in Adegoke’s murder other than to see the culprits face the full wrath of the law.
Rasheed also stated that no PDP member was involved as counsel for any of the convicted individuals, noting that the state judiciary exercises its full independence in the hearing and judgement of the case.
“We affirm with all sense of responsibility that Governor Adeleke is not at any material time a friend or partner of the owner of Oduduwa University and did not interfere, intervene, or manifest any untoward agenda in the arraignment, hearing, and sentencing of the accused,” he added.
He urged the members of the public to ignore the repeated rumours of state pardon for the convict, adding that those spreading lies were acting on behalf of disgruntled political elements and were better ignored.
Adegoke was found dead in November 2021 at Adedoyin’s Hilton Honours Hotel, Ile-Ife, where he (the deceased) had lodged.
In a judgment on May 31, the Chief Judge of Osun State, Justice Adepele Ojo, pronounced Adedoyin and two staff members of the hotel guilty of murder.
Ojo, in a judgment that lasted over two hours, held that the circumstantial evidence available to the court, pointed to the killing of Adegoke while being a guest at the hotel owned by Adedoyin.
