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From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
An Environmental Health Officer with Osun State Government, Adejumo Adebowale, on Thursday, told the court that the late Timothy Adegoke, a Master student of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, who he refered to as ‘pauper,’ was found with rope tied round his body where he was dumped.
Led in evidence by the prosecutor, MO Omosun, the witness who was the 7th witness, gave evidence before the Chief Judge of Osun State, Justice Oyebola Adepele Ojo, in Osogbo.
He said in evidence that he received a call from the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), More, Ile-Ife, informing him of the dead pauper along Ede road, Ile-Ife, and a directive by the Chairman, Ife Central Local Government, Hon Jacob Olayera, to bury the deceased.
“I tried to confirm from the Chairman. I was unable to see the chairman till the closing hour of November 8, 2021. On November 9, I called the chairman to confirm if the DPO called him. He said he was informed.
“On getting to the police station, the DPO had brought a memo in respect of the removal of the pauper. The letter was addressed to the Executive Chairman of Ife Central local government and it was copied to police area command, Ife division. The letter was subjected to due process compliance at the local government. We have about eight officers that worked on that letter.
“The approval was later given to me by the management of Ife Central local government to remove and bury the pauper. A sum of N20,000 was approved by the local government to hire causal labour. We proceeded to the place where the DPO described to us that the pauper was found. We took the photograph of how we met the pauper and we discovered that he was in complete state of decay. We were unable to move the corpse from the place where it was found. We decided to dig a grave beside the corpse at the setback of the road and we fumigated the surroundings before, during and after the burial process around 2:00am.
“I sent the soft copy of the pictures taken during the process of the burial to the WhatsApp number of the Chairman and it was acknowledged by the Chairman. I didn’t hear anything about the pauper again until November 25, 2021 when I was called by the DPO, More police station to come and meet officers from the state police headquarters in respect of the burial.”
The witness who was cross-examined by counsels to the defendants, KK Eleja, SAN, Muritala AbduRasheed, SAN, Rowland Otaru, SAN, and Okon Ita, told the court that the ropes found on the pauper (deceased) was used to carry him because it was heavy and decayed.
When showed one of the photographs tendered and admitted in exhibit, the witness agreed that two persons dragged the deceased with the ropes.
When the prosecutor applied for the mobile phone of the witness to be released for him, the counsels kicked and later agreed with a condition that he would provide the mobile phone and the memory card intact.
Justice Ojo thereby released the mobile phone of the witness as agreed by the counsels, and adjourned the matter to March 21, for further hearing.
