The Ibom Air has confirmed “an incident on its 6 pm flight from Abuja to Lagos on Friday, 31 March 2023,” in which “a passenger stood up and began addressing other passengers in a manner considered inappropriate and unruly, as he was making other passengers nervous.”
A viral video on Instagram has earlier shown the man who was shouting “obidient” being forcefully taken out of the aircraft by the airport security agents.
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“He has asked obidient to rise up and make sure that Tinubu, whom he alleged stole their mandate, is not sworn-in. He was shouting, and everyone became frightened that a plan to hijack the aeroplane might be likely,” a passenger said after his anonymity was assured.
The carrier, Ibom Air, in a statement sent to Platforms Africa, said; “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.”
Here is a read-for-yourself full statement from Aniekan Essienette, Group Manager, Marketing and Communication, Ibom Air.
PRESS RELEASE
April 1, 2023
UNRULY PASSENGER
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.
SIGNED,
Aniekan Essienette
Group Manager, Marketing and Communication
