A man, Christopher Ogbonna, has accused a pilot of Air Peace, a Nigerian airline, of ordering airport security to assault his wife, Nneka, over a luggage dispute.
According to Ogbonna, his wife had tried to fly from Lagos to Warri, Delta State, before the pilot, identified as Capt. Horace Millar-Jaja, ordered her off the plane.
Narrating how the incident happened in a series of tweets posted on Friday, July 24, 2020, the man, a lawyer, said his wife had been prevented from boarding the plane after a boarding official asked her to surrender her hand luggage to be put in the cargo compartment. She insisted the luggage had been tagged as cabin luggage and was inappropriate for it to go to the cargo compartment.
He said an hostess insisted the cabin compartments had been exhausted by other passengers. While this was going on, the pilot allegedly left the cockpit and verbally abused the woman for disagreeing with the hostess.
To avoid any scene, she had surrendered the luggage as earlier instructed but Millar-Jaja continued to rain abusive words on her forcing her to react. However, she was able to make her way to her seat and prepare for the plane to depart.
Ogbonna said the pilot then turned off the air conditioning of the aircraft, insisting his wife must be removed from the plane. He called in officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to remove the woman, who allegedly tried to strip her naked in the process.
He added that fellow passengers, who had been on her side the whole time, lost patience and turned against her when Millar-Jaja announced to them that she is a hijacker. He said she had told the FAAN and NCAA officials that she wanted to file a complaint against Air Peace. She was however led away to their office, where she was forced to write a statement by which time the plane had departed for Warri.
Ogbonna said his wife was then handed over to the Police. He said officials of Air Peace asked the police to seize her international passport. He added that she remained at the back of the counter until he arrived to bail her.
On 10th December 2019, my wife @CandyNekky arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos to board @flyairpeace flight 7210 from Lagos to Warri. @fccpcnigeria @FAAN_Official @fmaviationng @NigerianCAA @NGRSenate @SaharaReporters @NGRPresident @SPNigeria
— Christopher Ogbonna LLB, BL, LLM (Dist. Aberdeen) (@Qriscero) July 24, 2020
However, Air Peace, in a statement, said his wife had blocked other passengers from boarding the aircraft over the incident. It said Millar-Jaja had enquired what the matter was but returned to his cabin after the woman insulted him. It also stated that she had started hurling insults at everybody while making a video of the aircraft.
“When her unruly attitude became intolerable, the Pilot-in-Command asked that she be deboarded. She refused and stood on the stairs of the aircraft. Even when the airport security was invited, she was unyielding. This prompted a call for reinforcement from FAAN. It was however not until the pilot shut down the engine of the aircraft at 12:15pm that she was successfully disembarked. We then referred the matter to the Airport Police Command.
“It is important to state that the pilot had approached Mrs. Ogbonna to inquire what the matter was and returned to his seat when she threw İnsults at him. His act was in exercise of his pre-flight requirement as commander of the aircraft as required by the Civil Aviation Regulations. There was no time that the pilot acted contrary to the Regulations,” the statement, a copy of which was posted by Ogbonna, read in part.
Ogbonna, who also posted a copy of a petition written to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC), promised to give $1,000 to any passenger who comes forward to testify in the matter.
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