Schoolmate Who Knocked Arotile Down Had No Driver’s License

Fresh details have surfaced on the demise of Tolulope Arotile, Nigeria’s first female combat helicopter pilot who died on Tuesday, July 14.

Arotile had died from head injuries sustained in a road accident at NAF Base, Kaduna.

The NAF had in a statement said the late pilot was hit by a reversing car driven by one of her secondary school classmates who wanted to greet her.

“Flying Officer Arotile died on July 14, 2020 at the age of 24, when she was inadvertently hit by the reversing vehicle of an excited former classmate at the Air Force Secondary School while trying to greet her,” said Air Com. Ibikunle Daramola, NAF Director of Public Relations and Information in the statement on Wednesday.

However a military source further revealed to Channels TV the classmate is a civilian who has no valid driving credentials.

The source reportedly said the driver, accompanied by his friends, visited his relatives at the NAF base and decided to drop off the late pilot whom he spotted on the road inside the base.

It was in the process of reversing the car that the said civilian driver knocked down the deceased pilot.

The NAF however stated officially that the unnamed driver had been detained.

The source also confirmed the driver and other occupants of the car have been taken into custody by NAF.

According to The Cable, Damilola Adegboye, Arotile’s immediate elder sister, had demanded a probe on her death.

MERIDIAN SPY reports the late pilot will be laid to rest with full military honours at the National Military Cemetery in Abuja on Thursday July 23.