Ibom Air: Why we disembarked unruly passenger on Abuja-Lagos flight

Ibom Airlines says the passenger who delayed its Abuja to Lagos flight spoke in an inappropriate and unruly manner.

The Star had reported that the man was on Friday, March 31 carried off the flight after declaring that the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, must not be sworn in as Nigeria’s President on May 29, 2023.

The man, who stood in the middle of the plane raising his voice, said there would be “war” if the President-elect is sworn in.

However, Ibom Airlines, in a statement issued on Saturday by the Group Manager, Marketing and Communication, Aniekan Essienette, apologised to the passengers for the delay they experienced.

The statement read: “We wish to inform the public about an incident on our 6 pm flight from Abuja to Lagos on Friday, 31 March 2023.

“A passenger stood up and began addressing other passengers in a manner considered inappropriate and unruly, as he was making other passengers nervous.

“Our crew deemed his continuous unruly behavior unsafe and called on airport security to help with the situation. Upon his refusal to stop or disembark peacefully, the security operatives were left with no choice but to forcefully disembark the passenger as a last option.

“We are aware that several videos and reports of this incident are circulating on social media and wish to provide the right perspective.

“Ibom Air wishes to assure our passengers that we maintain very high safety and service standards and will never compromise the safety and security of our passengers.

“We apologise to the affected passengers for the time it took to disembark this passenger, which caused an otherwise on-time departure to be delayed by an hour,” Essienette stated.

The Star

Segun Ojo