Ibom Air has given insight into why a passenger who addressed other passengers insisting that Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu should not be sworn in as President on May 29.
The unidentified passenger had raised his voice on the airline’s 6.00p flight from Abuja to Lagos screaming that Tinubu must not be sworn in as Nigeria’s next President.
The conduct of the passenger, the videos of which have been circulating online, disturbed others who doubted his psychological state and insisted that he should be evacuated from the flight.
On Saturday, the Group Manager, Marketing and Communication, Aniekan Essienette, Group Manager, Marketing and Communication explained that the passenger was evacuated from the aircraft because his conduct was unruly and it made others passengers nervous.
Essienette explained that the airport security personnel who were invited to intervene had to forcibly evacuate the passenger as he refused to get off the aircraft.
He said: “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 behaviour 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.”
“No further information has been made available by Ibom Air on the circumstances of the anti-Tinubu passenger,” he said.
Further in the video, apart from the man that was dragged down from the aeroplane by the airport security, another was also seen on the street in a Labour Party cap.
He was manhandled by the security operatives on the instruction of a man who order them to fire the car the man as well as all the tyres. “Who is that person, let me see his face, let me see the face of the person wearing, who is that person? Peter Obi.
What has Peter Obi done for you, eh, what has Peter Obi done for you? He has not done anything and you people want to sell us in this community, eh! We have been warning you people, eh! This is the last time you have. Any time I see you wearing political clothe, cap or anything about politics – shoot this car, fire the car, fire all the tyres, fuck am.”