Ibom Air Speaks on Passenger Evacuated from Aircraft

Nigerian airline, Ibom Air, has provided an insight into why a passenger was bundled out of its Abuja-Lagos flight on Friday, March 31.

There was a mild drama on Friday when the passenger, who identified himself as a member of the Obidient Movement, supporters of Labour Party's (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, announced that the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, must never be Sworn in as president.

He accused fellow passengers of sitting while Tinubu, who won the February 25 presidential poll, is about to be sworn in.

The airline security team and aviation security personnel of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, had to bundle out the passenger.

lbom Air, while providing an insight into the incident, in a statement issued on Saturday, April 2, said that the team had to forcefully disembark him because his conduct was "unsafe."

The statement reads, "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.

"lbom 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."

April 01, 2023