FAAN hands over ‘Obidient’ passenger to Police, DSS
2 April 2023
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said it has handed over an Ibom Air passenger to the Police.
The passenger whose name is unknown at the moment was on Friday evening dragged off an Abuja to Lagos-bound flight.
The passenger had announced that the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, must not be sworn in on May 29.
In the video which went viral, the man was heard shouting as he was being carried off the aisle, “Obidients you’re here. They are doing this to me. Obidients you’re here, I am naked. Obidients you’re here, I am going naked.”
It took the efforts of about six airport officials to evacuate him after delaying the aircraft for more than an hour.
The management of Ibom Air also shared its account of what happened onboard its aircraft at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja.
The airline apologised to passengers for the one-hour delay due to the actions of the passenger.
The airline in a statement by its Group Manager, Marketing and Communication, Aniekan Essienette stated: “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 apologize 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,” the airline said.
Also reacting to the development, an official of FAAN who spoke to The Nation said the passenger was handed over to the Airport Police Command and the DSS.
The official who pleaded not to be named said: “What happened yesterday is a national issue. We were recently told about plans of an interim government and just yesterday, a man stood up and protested that the president-elect would not be sworn in.
“Such a case is beyond the Aviation Security and FAAN. What AVSEC and FAAN did was to do documentation and also check the manifest and the aircraft to be sure the passenger in question was working alone.
“This caused delay in the aircraft and also caused unrest amongst passengers on board," he added.
He further said: “After the passenger was taken out of the aircraft, he was handed over to the Airport Police Command and when matters such as this occur, the police usually involve the DSS and I think they (DSS) were duly briefed in case it is an act of terrorism or a threat to national security.
“So, the DSS will be briefed and if they feel he should be detained, he will be detained. So, the passenger was handed over to the police yesterday because this case is bigger than what we think as it could incite people and even cause unrest,” he added.
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