Naval officer Kayode Petinrin, son of a former chief of defence staff, Oluseyi Petinrin (retd), has denied an allegation that he assaulted a Lagos motorist, identified simply as Sola, in the CMS area of Lagos State.
Kayode was alleged to have assaulted Sola after allegedly damaging his car in an attempt to manoeuvre on the bus rapid transit lane along the axis last Tuesday.
The complainant had lamented that he was planning to take the car to the palace of the Elegushi for blessings when the incident happened.
However, Kayode told PUNCH on Saturday that he was returning from a hospital on the day of the incident after being diagnosed with pneumonia and malaria.
He said, “While on Marina Road, I was hit in the rear by a motorist in a BMW. When I looked in my side mirror, I could see that my bumper had pulled out. But I was tired because I had been in the hospital for like three days; I was really tired and I did not want to start any altercation, so, I kept driving.
“Getting to a traffic light, a man who was later identified as Mr Sola in The PUNCH, came and began hitting my car violently. He was banging on my car claiming he is a relative of Oba Elegushi. He was shouting that why did I stop suddenly in front of his car, that I had damaged his car, that he was taking the car to the palace for the oba’s blessing.”
Kayode said he remained in his car until policemen came to the scene and appeared to have resolved the matter.
He added that he was surprised to see Sola trailing him from behind.
Kayode said the policemen from Oba Elegushi’s palace pleaded with him to let the case go after he showed them the alleged damage Sola did to his car.
“Later in the evening, he came back with military police from Nigerian Army 81 Garrison, led by one Sergeant Adams and four others, and he also came with policemen from the Maroko Police Station.
“I took the men into my compound and showed them the car. As soon as they saw the location of the impact, they were like we didn’t see your car before; they apologised to me,” he said.
Kayode also denied asking his security operatives to shoot the military police officers that came to the house.
