Ken Okeke
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has expressed disgust towards the Aviation Safety and Security following the case of unruly Ms. Comfort Bob Emmanson, who was seen in a viral video assaulting a cabin crew of Ibom Air and the altercation she had with airline staff before she was taken away.
While admitting the unruly behaviour of the lady, which he said has no place in civil aviation, the Minister condemned what he described as the deplorable release of such evidence containing indecent exposure to the public to ridicule her, saying, “That is unacceptable to us”.
He said, “We will not fold our arms and tolerate the debasing of womanhood. I have therefore directed that whoever released that part of the video containing the indecent exposure amongst the staff should be singled out and adequately sanctioned.”
“I have also directed that the airlines must continue to train and retrain their staff in public relations and how to deal with potentially explosive situations to diffuse them promptly or nip them in the bud, except when it becomes inevitable.”
The Minister has equally directed a joint security meeting between relevant agencies next week for better coordination of security measures in situations like this or similar ones we witnessed recently.
For genuinely aggrieved passengers, he noted there are laid-down remedies to address grievances, adding that the Consumer Protection Directorate of the NCAA had consistently advertised these remedies, and there is no point trying to take the laws into one’s hands, which may lead to dire consequences.
He disclosed that the NCAA and the Ministry would continue to apply equal sanctions available to them in aviation on any such erring passengers, including lengthy flight bans and report the matters to other law-enforcement agencies to do their bit within their powers.
He noted that in the last few hours, he had been speaking with the Commissioner of Police of the Airport Police Command, the Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and his team, the Managing Director of FAAN and her team, the Chief Operating Officer of Ibom Air and his team about the incident.
The incident took place on Sunday on Ibom Airline Flight No. Q153 from Uyo, Akwa Ibom, to Lagos at about 14:54 hours.
Ibom Airline had, in a statement, provided some context to the effect that the whole unfortunate incident arose because of the refusal of the passenger to switch off her phone during take-off as required by the extant International Civil Aviation Regulations.
Apart from the indefinite flight ban imposed on the said unruly passenger (both local and international) by the NCAA, the Police promptly arraigned her Monday morning at the Ikeja Magistrates Court for criminal offences and remanded her at Kirikiri Prisons as she could not provide adequate sureties in court