Dare Babalola
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has addressed the difference between how Wasiu Ayinde, a Fuji artiste also known as KWAM 1 and Comfort Emmanson, the passenger who assaulted Ibom Air staff were treated.
But passengers on different flights and dates were unruly to the crew members of the airlines they boarded. While Kwam 1 was onboard a ValueJet plane, Emmanson, on Sunday boarded an Ibom Air flight from Uyo to Lagos.
In the case of Kwam 1, he stood in front of the aircraft after he was deboarded for refusing to disclose the content of a flask he was holding. Following his action, he was immediately handed an indefinite ban from flying.
Emmason, who is presently in the Kirikiri Correctional Facility, Lagos till October 6 was seen in a video assaulting an air hostess and later attacking airport officials.
Her immediate arrest and remand have sparked controversies on the Nigerian social media, with netizens questioning the potency of the Nigerian judicial laws when an influential individual is involved.
One of the notable Nigerians who described Emmanson’s remand as a double standard was the Labour Party 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, who wondered why Kwam 1 is a free man despite doing something similar with the Uyo passenger.
Speaking on X space on Monday, Mike Achimugu, the NCAA’s director of public affairs and consumer protection, said the authority does not dictate airline prosecutions, and the court will decide the outcome.
Achimugu said the Ibom Air case is different from that of KWAM 1, as the NCAA had time to investigate and advise the airline.
In the Ibom Air case, Achimugu said the airline acted independently based on available evidence.
“In this case, the airline exercised its rights to do what they needed to do, right? And AON, based on some of the evidence already available, because while the investigations are ongoing, you can still be working with what is available to you,” he said.
“Now, for you who say you are in the industry, when you see a passenger hitting a cabin crew member in the way the lady was doing, and the fight she had with the people who came to restrain her, you may have to agree that the airlines had every right to announce a ban.
“Yeah, of course, one would expect that at the end of all of these things, maybe the ban could be shortened or even removed altogether.
“But as of the moment, if they feel that that’s the right thing, because again, don’t forget, airline staff are also human beings, and they’re also fellow Nigerians.
“Some of them are your brothers and your sisters, too. And they deserve the same courtesy that passengers also deserve. Now, nobody deserves to be beaten up or hit in the manner that occurred on this flight.
“Based on video evidence available, AON has made such a decision. It is within their rights, because they also have been suffering some of these incidents a lot of the time.
“Remember, there was an airport incident where three drunk people had mid-air between London and Nigeria, caused a situation that could have crashed that flight.
“To date, Airpeace feels aggrieved that nobody issued an advisory for those passengers to be blacklisted. But you see, evidence of what happened on board was not made available to the NCAA. So it became a case of he said, she said.
“I just want to put it out there very clearly that the NCAA did not issue an advisory to AON, and AON is within its right to ban any passenger, to blacklist a passenger. Just to make this clear.“
