BY TIMOTHY AGBOR,OSOGBO
Justice Adepele Ojo of an Osun State High Court, sitting in Osogbo, on Wednesday, sentenced Miss Adesola Adedeji, the receptionist that lodged late Timothy Adegoke at Hilton Honors Hotel, Ile-Ife, in the evening of November 6, 2021, to two years imprisonment for altering the receipt issued to the deceased.
She was said to have fabricated another receipt for the purpose of concealing traces of Adegoke’s lodgement at the hotel.
The presiding judge, who is the Osun State Chief Judge, had on Tuesday found Adesola guilty of doctoring the hotel receipt issued to the deceased, fabricating another and concealing of evidence charged against her and convicted her accordingly.
However, counsel to Adesola, Okon Edet, had passionately begged the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing the convict, explaining that she never intended to conceal evidence and that it was through her statements to the police that some facts of the case were discovered.
Edet urged Justice Ojo to give Adesola, aged 25, an opportunity to turn a better life, adding, “My Lord, please, temper justice with mercy in sentencing her. She is a young person. The essence of punishment is to reform and an alternative to punishment is to reform. My Lord should be lenient in sentencing. There is a possibility of her turning a new leaf and turning a better life in society.”
“The period she has spent in custody, right from November 11, 2021, is enough for her to learn lessons. Her parents have suffered a lot since her incarceration and she is a first offender,” the lawyer had stressed.
Corroborating the pleas made by Edet, Fatima Adesina, the representative of the lead prosecutor, Femi Falana, had urged the court to consider the fact that Adesola assisted the prosecution with her evidences and be lenient in sentencing her.
To this end, the judge who was moved by pleas for Adesola had desisted from reading the sentence she had already reordered for the convict and adjourned till Wednesday for sentencing and consideration of the pleas for leniency.
When the matter came up for sentencing on Wednesday, Justice Ojo asked the prosecutor:
“Counsel (Adesina), what is the minimum and maximum sentence that is recorded for the allegations that Adesola was convicted with? I want to be more educated on it. I want you to educate me on the community service that is available in the state. Do we have effective arrangements for community service?”
Adesina replied that she was aware that a judge in the state had sometimes ago asked a convict to sweep the premises of the Osun State University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, adding that such punishment was the only community service she was aware of.
Not satisfied with the response of the prosecutor, the judge proceeded in delivering her sentence.
Ojo sentenced Adesola to two years jail term, noting that it should start counting from the first day she was detained after the incident happened in November 2021.
“I have carefully considered the passionate pleas of the counsel in his allocutors. I have observed the sober dominion of the convict throughout the trial. I am equally mindful of the circumstances leading to her culpability but Section 411 (2)(b) (e) of the law will take its course. I hereby sentence you Adedeji Adesola to two years imprisonment counting from the first day of your detention,” Ojo said.
The convict wept profusely apparently in appreciation of the mercy shown her by the court.
