Ogun House of Reps-elect, Akinosi debunks allegation of knocking down hawker
Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta
A House of Representatives member-elect for Ado-Odo/Ota Federal constituency, Hon Tunji Akinosi, has debunked the alleged report making the rounds that his car was involved in an accident, knocking down a hawker around Onikan, Lagos State.
Rather, he said the video making the rounds was done in bad taste and an attempt to smear his personality.
There had been a report circulating in the media space that Akinosi’s car was involved in an accident during when he was said to have engaged some people in a fight.
Akinosi in a statement on Wednesday however said that he would have ordinarily ignored the post, but for the need to put the issue straight and shed light on the incident, hence the statement released to newsmen.
Explaining the incident, Akinosi said that “what actually happened was that there was traffic along the Onikan axis due to the May Day celebration, the hawkers were everywhere and along the road hustling, and in an attempt to outwit themselves one of them ran into my car side mirror and damaged it, immediately my driver stopped to pick the damaged mirror now lying on the ground, the hawker fell on the floor claiming he had a broken leg, sensing the damage and expenses involved.
“Before you know what was going on, some individuals surrounded my car banging on the owner’s side asking me to come down that I had hit and wounded a hawker, but I answered them that my driver was already attending to the matter.
“A lady just emerged from nowhere and shouting on top of her voice that she knows me and trying to disclose my identity.
“When the matter was becoming rowdy, I opted for two options, first was that, we will all first move to the police station to lodge a formal complaints and from there, to the General Hospital, Onikan, I was ready to pay all the bills if he is discovered to have a fractured leg and secondly, if he is not diagnosed of such, he will buy the complete set of my car side mirror.
“On hearing my options, the hawker jumped up begging me to allow him continue with his hawking, saying it was those people that asked him to pretend he had a fractured leg,” he said.
The lawmaker-elect advised the general public to always be kind, gentle and reasonable in their action to any incident, rather than creating a mob environment.
Akinosi reiterated his commitment to using his influence and whatever office he is occupying to serve and never to ride roughshod of anybody no matter his or status in the society.
He said investigation had since revealed that the lady who recorded the video, Thomas Abiodun, was a former staff of the Ogun state government at the College of Health Technology, Ilese.
The federal lawmaker-elect who is also the immediate past Commissioner for Forestry in Ogun State also said that Abiodun was said to have been allegedly dismissed recently with others having been found wanting and for gross misconduct unexpected of a civil servant and thereafter disciplinary actions were taken against her.
He said “in all probability and with the way she had behaved, she was all out not really to show genuine concern but rather with a motive to create unnecessary scene and score cheap popularity.”
