Gbade, elder brother to the late Masters’ student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Timothy Adegoke, told the court on Monday that he and the wife of the deceased were offered N120 million by someone believed to be working for the hotel owner as a settlement following the death of Adegoke.
He was testifying as a prosecution witness in the trial of some staff and management of the hotel for the death of Adegoke.
Gbade also said he saw bloodstains on the wall of the room where his brother lodged at Hilton Honours Hotel, Ile-Ife when he and some operatives inspected the room.
Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, M. Omosun, he also said he observed during the visit that the door to the room was damaged and repaired.
However, under cross-examination by Mr K. Eleja, SAN, counsel for the hotel’s owner, Dr. Ramon Adedoyin, he admitted that he did not include these observations in the two statements he wrote before the police, which were earlier admitted as evidence by the court.
He identified the person who made offers of money to them as Idmund, adding that the offer was made via the telephone. He said he was offered N50 million, while the wife of the deceased was offered N70 million to settle the matter.
He however said Adedoyin did not personally offer him money.
He also said the receptionist on duty the day late Adegoke lodged in the hotel, Adesola Adedeji, told Investigative Police Officer in charge of the case that the hotel’s lodgers’ register had been doctored.
Giving her testimony before the court, the wife of the deceased, Bolatito, who could not control her emotion and broke down in tears, said the last meal eaten by her husband was the one he ate in the evening of Friday, November 4.
She also insisted that her husband was not sick, and while being cross-examined by one of the defence counsel, Kunle Adegoke, SAN, on why she was making frequent calls to her husband, Bolatito said calls to her husband on the day the incident happened were not unusually persistent.
A relation of the Timothy Adegoke, Adetola Adewoyin, also said she was contacted by the deceased’s wife to assist her in checking the campus where her husband was supposed to sit for examination when she could not reach him on the telephone.
Earlier, Justice Adepele Ojo, in her ruling on the bail applications of all the seven defendants namely; Adedoyin, Adedeji Adesola, Magdalene Chiefuna, Adeniyi Aderogba, Oluwale Lawrence, Oyetunde Kazeem and Adebayo Kunle, dismissed the applications.
Ojo faulted the health grounds cited by the defendants, saying that the defendants’ health could not be said to be threatened with their detention.
Justice Ojo adjourned the matter till Tuesday for the continuation of hearing.
