₦airaland Forum

While the police continue their investigation into the death of Timothy Adegoke, the MBA student of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, who was found dead eight days after he was declared missing, FIJ has obtained a picture of the deceased’s body after it was exhumed.

In the picture, Adegoke, who wears what looks like a pair of blue underpants, has blood stains on different parts of his body.

A part of his neck and face seems to have suffered more degradation than other parts of the body, save the left arm.

The shirt on him looks soaked, while his shoulders and head are half covered with what looks like a grey bedsheet.

Critically, his left arm seems to have been ridden of every form of flesh, probably severed, as only a piece of bone is visible.
This contradicts claims by Yemisi Opalola, the spokesperson of Osun State Police Command, on a radio programme on November 18 that Adegoke’s body was found intact.

“What we know, as Timothy’s loved ones, is that his body had been tampered with when it was brought out. We, however, would not want to go into details until the autopsy report comes out,” a relative of the deceased, who asked not to be named, told FIJ.

Presently, Rahmon Adedoyin, the owner of Hilton Hotel and Resort, where Adegoke was lodged and possibly killed, is now in police custody.

Six of Hilton employees are also in police custody in connection with the death of the Abuja-based chartered accountant.

Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), a member of the Lagos State Panel on Restitution for Victims of SARS-Related Abuses and Other Matters, has advised the Lagos State Government of Babajide Sanwo-Olu to focus on recommendations contained in the report submitted by the panel rather than “seek to demonize EndSARS Panel members and their report or to evade responsibility”.

The EndSARS panel inaugurated in October 2020 submitted a 309-page report in which it revealed that soldiers shot live ammunition at armless protesters with the intention to kill and maim them.

Reacting to criticism of panel members ever since, Adegboruwa, writing on his official Facebook profile on Friday, accused the government of subjecting the report of the panel to media trials and attacks.

He described it as an improper and uncharitable attempt by the government to frustrate the good work of the panel.

“I have listened to the narratives of the Lagos State Government through one of its Learned Senior Counsel at the #EndSARS Panel, to the effect that Nigerians should reject the report of the Panel because I signed it, since I was not present at some of the sittings of the Panel,” he said.

“I served on the Panel on the mandate of the Governor of Lagos State, who told me on telephone that I was chosen to represent CIVIL SOCIETY. I requested for and approval was granted in writing, that my appointment was on a part-time basis.

“Furthermore, the Governor told me that two members were chosen to represent civil society on the Panel so that one of us would always be present at the Panel to excuse the absence of the other. I accepted the appointment in good faith, to serve the people, to calm frayed nerves at the time and also to restore normalcy to Lagos State. So, at all times, I functioned in partnership with my colleague from civil society, and there was no major sitting of the Panel in which both of us were absent.”

Recalling that he served on the panel free of charge, from October 19, 2020 when it was inaugurated till November 15, 2021, when it submitted its report, Adegboruwa said the government was well aware of his identity, perspectives, philosophies and general convictions, at least since his university days, before it nominated him into the Panel, that he would always say things the way they are.

“All Panel members acted in good faith, independently and in the fear of God Almighty,” he insisted.

“My principled struggles in respect of toll fee collection started way back from 2011, almost nine years before the Panel was inaugurated. Indeed, the Governor said that these were the factors that favoured my selection as a member of the Panel. Will I then deny myself, forfeit my reputation and discredit my constituency, my colleagues in the Nigerian Bar Association and comrades in civil society, in order to please anybody or cover up the truth? NEVER!

“It is therefore improper for Lagos State Government, through its lawyer that appeared before the Panel and other sponsored agents, to subject the report of the Panel and indeed the integrity of Panel members to media trials and attacks, all in the bid to build up the contents of its White Paper, which we can now reasonably foretell, from these sponsored media attacks.

“It is indeed uncharitable for the same government that urged the Panel not to be held down by strict rules of technicalities of law in order to unravel the real truth about the Lekki Toll Gate Incident, to now through its counsel, talk about alleged legal discrepancies, to frustrate the good work of the Panel that it set up.

“There are documents to back up and defend the report submitted to the Governor by the Panel but I have chosen to defer to His Excellency and to await the White Paper as promised, because I believe that the Governor meant well in setting up the Panel and giving us free hand to operate. I appeal to His Excellency to continue in that note of sincerity.”

Adegboruwa said there was no minority report from the panel, as the report submitted to the governor on November 15, 2021 was unanimously endorsed by all members of the panel, who worked tirelessly, day and night, to serve the government and the people, even at great risks to their health, personal safety, career and family obligations and their general well-being.

“I’m very sure that Panel members would have been lionized to the highest heavens if we had bought into the narrative of the government before the Panel that it was criminals, cultists, hoodlums and unknown gunmen that operated at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020,” he continued.

“I urge the government to focus on the findings and far-reaching recommendations contained in the report, in order to pursue the laudable objectives of setting up the Panel to achieve true healing and reconciliation, instead of seeking to demonize Panel members and their report or to evade responsibility.

“God bless Nigeria.”

Timothy Adegoke, the MBA student at Obafemii Awololowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, who was declared missing on November 7, is dead, FIJ can report.

According to a statement signed and made available to FIJ by Opalola Yemisi Olawoyin, the spokesperson for the Osun State Police Command, the police said it was working to unravel the circumstances surrounding Adegoke’s death.

“The Commissioner of Police, CP Olawale Olokode, psc, wishes to assure the general public, especially the family of the deceased, students and management of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, that the police command is working assiduously to unravel the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Timothy Adegoke, a master’s degree student of OAU who came from Abuja to sit for his examination at the OAU distance learning centre, Moro, Osun State,” the statement reads.

“It would be recalled that, a case of missing person was reported on 7th November, 2021 at about 1630hrs, at Edun Abon police station and later transferred to State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for discreet investigation on 9th November, 2021. Immediately the case was received, detectives from SCID of the command swung into action and have arrested six (6) suspects in connection with the case while investigation is ongoing.

“Consequently, the Commissioner of Police is using this medium to appeal to the family, the sympathizers, students and management of the university to remain calm and be rest assured that, the police will do all within its constitutional responsibility to unravel the mystery behind his death.”

The police however did not state how he died or where his body was found.

Adegoke, was an Abuja-based student who travelled to Ife on November 5 to sit for an examination at the school’s distance learning centre in Moro, Osun State.

He was declared missing two days later when friends and family members could neither reach his phone line nor find him at the exam venue.

Tobiloba (not real name) and three of his co-workers invested over N1 million in Breach Menders Investment in January. But it became an investment gone bad shortly.

Mayowa Olukehinde, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Breach Menders, had promised one of Tobiloba’s colleagues a future of financial abundance if they invested in his forex trading firm and benefited from its 20 percent returns.

After keying into the scheme, a colleague of Tobiloba informed him and three others who would invest a sum of N950,000. Tobiloba also invested N100,000.

In February, he expected his first payment of N20,000 but did not get anything.

“Olukehinde told us that we would get a 20 percent commission on our capital at the end of every month, but it shocked me when I did not get my money in February and March. He told us he had changed his mind on the monthly payment and would only pay at the end of the third month,” Tobiloba said.

PATIENCE, AND THEN FRUSTRATION

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Tobiloba still chose to be patient after Olukehinde assured him he would be paid in April, but again, his patience did not bring him any good luck.
In July, Tobiloba’s patience ran out and he refused to listen to Olukehinde’s well-orchestrated lies. By perusing through the WhatsApp group he and other investors belonged in, he found that he had been fleeced.

“Most people in the group were also complaining. When I noticed this, I followed the group closely and saw that he had not paid anyone. But he would always claim he had paid some people and block anyone who used strong words,” Tobiloba told FIJ.

“At this point, I was determined to get my money back. But Olukehinde began to plead for more time. He said the money had gone with the wind as the forex market crashed. And even though he presented himself as the trader when we decided to invest, he told me he was not the main trader, but I didn’t care.”

Tobiloba and his colleagues tried their best to get Olukehinde to refund their money, but he would not. At some point he said his corporate account was frozen by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and at another time he claimed to have sold his personal belongings to pay some investors.

Now, he is unreachable. “If you call him, he will hardly answer his call,” Tobiloba told FIJ. “And if you call him several times, he’d block you. His office at Agege is closed too.”

FIJ made several calls to Olukehinde, but his line was switched off. A text message sent to him was also not responded to.

Investors said Breach Menders swindled them out of N50 million. On his LinkedIn account, Olukehinde says his law firm is Breach Menders Legal Practitioners.

Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), may have been sentenced to eight years in prison for over N2billion pension fraud, but he is currently “living like a king” and has never been in a prison cell, FIJ can report.

On Monday, Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Maitama, Abuja, sentenced Maina to eight years in Kuje Medium Security Prison, where he has been held, convicting him and his company, Common Input Property and Investment Ltd, on all the 12 counts filed against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

MAINA’S FULL PUNISHMENT

Maina was sentenced to various concurrent jail terms ranging from three to eight years. He was jailed three years for Count 1, five years for Count 2, eight years for Count 3, eight years for Count 4, two years for Count 5, five years for Count 6.

HE was jailed for eight years for Count 7, three years for Count 8, five years for Count 9, eight years for Count 10, three years for Count 11 and three years for Count 12.

Justice Abang ordered that the terms of imprisonment shall run concurrently beginning from October 25, 2019, the date he was arraigned, meaning he will serve only the lenghtiest of all the terms: eight years. However, FIJ can confirm that in those two years since October 2019, Maina has never slept in a prison cell.

‘LIVING LIKE A KING’

“Which Maina? Maina that since he was admitted to Kuje correctional facility, he has never seen a cell,” one prison source, who asked not to be named for fear of official vicitmisation, told FIJ.

“He has been living in the hospital inside the facility; it is more or less like a living room. He lives inside one of the rooms in the hospital building — not in the hospital ward itself.”

A second prison source, who also asked not to be named, told FIJ Maina was “living like a king” in prison, even though some other high-profile prisoners, such as Jolly Nyame, former Governor of Taraba State, and Farouk Lawan, former House of Representatives member, are indeed in cells.

Nyame is serving a 12-year jail term for misappropriation of funds while he was Governor of Taraba State from 1999 to 2007, while Lawan is serving a seven-year jail term for demanding a $3million bribe and receiving $500,000 in two tranches from businessman Femi Otedola.

“Maina is a northerner treated like a king. He is living large inside a well-furnished room in the hospital,” the second source said. “Even Farouk Lawan is inside his cell in Custody 4; Jolly Nyame is in Custody 3 downstairs.”

FIJ understands Maina’s room is just two rooms to the left of the air-conditioned room in the picture above.

FIJ contacted DSC Awiza, who was the Chief Warder of Kuje Prison until just a few days ago, but calls and a text message to his line were both unanswered.

Backdoor handing of special privileges to the rich and powerful is a frequent occurrence in Nigerian prisons. An undercover investigation by journalist ‘Fisayo Soyombo revealed such privileges at Ikoyi Prison — not just to the powerful but to any inmate willing to make a handsome payment in exchange for comfort.

Soldiers patrolling Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State have shot a yet-to-be-identified man.

On Tuesday, soldiers from a patrol van opened fire on commuters hundreds of metres away from the LGA headquarters and one fell.

After moving a short distance away, a crowd began to form around the man, prompting the soldiers to return, firing sporadically again and sending residents scampering for security.

When our reporter returned to the scene, the middle-aged man was no longer there. Multiple witnesses said he had been picked up by the soldiers.

Attempts to record the incident were futile, as soldiers forced all commuters to alight from their vehicles and raise both hands to full length.

FIJ earlier reported that a supplementary election in Ihiala LGA was scheduled for Tuesday, as elections failed to hold in the area on Saturday due to insecurity.