The Chief Judge of Osun State, Justice Adepele Ojo, has fixed judgment in murder case of Timothy Adegoke, a postgraduate student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, for today.
The Guardian gathered that judgment on the case, involving the owner of Hilton Honors Hotel, Ile-Ife, Rahmon Adedoyin, was last week deferred till today, May 30, 2023, at the State High Court, sitting in Osogbo.
Adedoyin and six of his hotel workers namely: Magdalene Chiefuna, Adeniyi Aderogba, Oluwole Lawrence, Oyetunde Kazeem, Adebayo Kunle, and Adedeji Adesola, are standing trial over the death of Adegoke.
The judge had as at a sitting in April received the final written and counter addresses from parties. Counsel to the defendants, including Yusuf Ali, Rowland Otaru, and Murtala Abdulrasheed, in their separate applications, had asked the court to void the appearances, applications and legal activities of the prosecuting counsel, Femi Falana, for allegedly lacking locus standi to prosecute the matter.
They urged the court to declare unconstitutional the appearances, applications and entire proceedings that Falana, Funmi Falana and Fatima Adesina conducted for failing to show proof that they were prosecuting with the approval of the Attorney General (AG) of Osun State and Commissioner of Justice.
Falana had argued that he obtained a fiat of the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice of Osun State to prosecute the matter. He said that Osun AG had sent three lawyers to the court on April 25, 2022, and handed the prosecution of the matter to him and wondered what the defence lawyers stand to achieve by making the applications.
