Hilton Hotel: Employees, Know When To Say No

By Otitoju Samuel

"My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." Proverbs 1:10

The Hilton Honours Hotel located in Ile-Ife has gained notoriety after it was established that it was within its premises that the promising young man Timothy Adegoke was murdered in cold blood. His corpse was buried in a shallow grave not too far from the hotel, following which the management and some members of staff thereafter colluded to doctor the hotel records with the aim to make it appear as if the victim never visited the hotel. Many people suspect that the killing of Timothy Adegoke with the active connivance of the hotel chairman and his son the managing director, is borne out of ritualistic intent. The once popular hotel, at least within the Ife axis, is now a notorious hotel. It can only be thought of as a house of horror; a sanctuary now turned a butchery. By the verdict of the court that has sentenced the perpetrators to death, the hotel is to be forfeited to the state. One can only imagine what the fate of that building would be. Many other properties that have been so acquired by our governments in times past have never been put to good use even when they do not have such a dark and grotesque history as this hotel. With the morbid and foreboding tale that will be passed on from individual to individual about this hotel, the chances that the property will be useful in the nearest future are very slim. The government may likely put it up for sale. The question is who then will be willing to buy a house that is being perceived as a slaughter slab and a ritualist den; the abode of ghosts. I can foresee that building wasting away and becoming a monument of shame. In years to come, parents will point at it to serve as a moral lesson for their children to avoid the path of ruinous crave for wealth.

The Hilton Honours Hotel was established by prince Ramon Adedoyin. He serves as the chairman of the hotel while his fugitive son, Raheem Adedoyin serves as the managing director. Both father and son have been indicted for the death of Timothy Adegoke. The father, alongside two of the hotel employees have been sentenced to death by hanging. The fugitive son on the other hand has been declared wanted. It was Joe Louis, the pugilist who ruled the heavyweight division between 1936 and 1948, that made the famous quote: "You can run, but you cannot hide". Let Raheem Adedoyin take this to heart as he keeps running like a fugitive that he is. He should also remember this line from Bob Marley's song: "You're running and you're running and you're running away. You're running and you're running and you're running away. But you cannot run away from yourself". If he succeeds in running away from the long arm of the law, he surely cannot run away from a guilty conscience that will continue to torment him. He has run away, yet he has not run away!

Some people commit crime willfully, others are dragged or conscripted into crime. The law however does not hold a criminal guiltless whether he does it of his own volition or commits a crime to satisfy his master. In the military era, when coup plotting was in vogue, there were usually the chief plotters and there were those who get drafted into the execution of the plot. If, or when the coup fails and the perpetrators are arrested, both the arrow heads and their foot soldiers were usually sentenced to death by firing squad. This is the pathetic situation of those employees of Hilton Honours Hotel who have been convicted for having a hand in the murder of Timothy Adegoke. From the testimony of hotel receptionist Adesola Adedeji, the plot to kill Timothy Adegoke seems to have been the brainchild of father and son Adedoyin. This receptionist has now earned herself a two-year jail term. Her co-workers Adeniyi Aderogba and Oyetunde Kazeem were both sentenced to death alongside their boss and chairman, Ramon Adedoyin. The three employees are to suffer for a crime they might not have plotted but which however they played different roles in.

My Yoruba people are very rich in their repertoire and reservoir of proverbs, anecdotes, idioms and wisecracks. They have a saying that goes thus: "Not knowing how to say no is how the wooden stirrer gets dipped into hot water". They even put it more poignantly in a way that suits the purpose of this article: "Not knowing how to say no, is why the dog gets sent on life-threatening errands by the hunter". Luckily, these three individuals are of the Yoruba ethnic descent. They must have heard at least one of these proverbs. It then beats the imagination why they should have allowed themselves to be sent on 'ise de toru toru'. It is even more unsettling to know that they had nothing worthwhile to gain if the deadly mission sailed through. If the wicked mission turned out to be successful, the Adedoyins would only continue to expand their earthly empire of prestige, prosperity and popularity built on human blood. The employees, however, would be consigned to perpetual servitude. They would be made to swear to oaths of secrecy which would keep them in check of ever divulging all the evils done in the closet to anyone. By so doing, they would be locked up in an imprisoned conscience, thus carrying on their duties in that hotel in constant fear and dread of their employer. Their neighbours, friends and relatives would see them as hotel employees, whereas they in reality would be prisoners to the Adedoyins; the hotel would be their prison yard.

These Hilton Honours Hotel employees who have received their comeuppance should serve as lessons to all other employees elsewhere. Your boss may send you on an assignment that will be your doom; the onus lies on you to refuse not to be damned and doomed. Did I hear you say, what could they have done? Did you say, they were helpless against a powerful employer? Well, now that these set of people are incarcerated and awaiting their appointment with the hangman, they would have realized that there were many things they could have done when they were being lured into crime. It is too late for them now, there is no need crying when the head is off. They, like the lead horse that has fallen into a ditch, are to serve as lessons to others. As an employee, there are a thousand and one ways to avoid getting yourself into an implicating situation, especially one that is coming from your employer. As an adult, and as a person who has gone to school, and, better still, as a human being with conscience and fear of God, you should not be told what to do when you are being lured, enticed or conscripted into commiting murder, falsifying records, stealing, accepting bribes, implicating an innocent individual and such other evils. The expensive phones people carry about can be a great asset to record evidence that will save them when they are being asked to do what is against their wish. Pictures can be taken, voice recordings can be done, videos can be recorded. In the worst case scenario you could resign from that job. If your job will cause you to offend, cut it off! It is better that you should be jobless and hungry than that you should be implicated in a criminal case, thereby attracting public opprobrium and having the wrath of God dangling precariously on your head. 

May the family of Timothy Adegoke be comforted in the knowledge that the culprits have been convicted. In one of his poems, James J. R. Jolobe, writes: "Sweet comfort, heaven's repose may mourners taste. Divine Restorer, wipe away all tears".

Otitoju Samuel, jobless poet and writer, lives in Ilorin.