Adesola Adedeji, the receptionist on duty the day late Timothy Adegoke, the Master’s student of Obafemi Awolowo University, lodged at Hilton Hotels, Ile-Ife, on Monday, told an Osun State High Court sitting in Osogbo that Close Circuit Television Camera in the hotel was working as of Friday, November 5, 2021, the day that the deceased arrived the hotel.
This was just as Justice Adepele Ojo, after the defence team had closed its case, adjourned the matter till Monday, June 27, to adopt final written addresses.
Adesola, who is the seventh defendant, under cross-examination by the lead prosecution counsel, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, however, said when she returned to the hotel on November 9, 2021, she observed that the CCTV monitor at the reception had been removed.
She stated that when she asked the receptionist on duty, Moshood Qodri, about the monitor that was removed, he said the television set could not have been stolen on the hotel premises.
She also told the court that the lodgers’ account she prepared and photographed with her telephone before she ended her shift on November 6, 2021, was different from the one prepared by the management and given to the police.
She said she spotted the difference when the police gave her the account prepared by the management, as it had signatures that were different from her own and that of the checker on duty.
She further said that the hotel’s Managing Director, Roheem Adedoyin, gave her a new receipt when she met him on the premises of Dr. Ramon Adedoyin’s house in Ile-Ife on November 11, 2021, and asked her to fill and present it to the police as the missing receipt.
She also claimed that Dr. Adedoyin suggested to her not to tell the police that the manager on duty knew about the payment made by late Adegoke.
Adesola also admitted, when she was shown the statement she wrote at the police headquarters in Osogbo that Dr. Adedoyin told her to inform the police that a lodger came into the hotel to enquire and later left. But the lodger transferred money into her account, details of which he had earlier collected after inquiry.
She also said on November 5, both Ramon and Roheem Adedoyin came into the hotel between 8 pm and 10 pm, but she could not say when they both left.
Adesola, under cross-examination by the counsel to the second, fourth and fifth defendants, Kunle Adegoke, SAN, admitted that Hilton Hotel was under renovation when late Adegoke lodged at the facility.
She also said Ramon Adedoyin and his son; Roheem did not enter rooms in the hotel when Adegoke slept there.
(PUNCH)
