Athletes Stranded At Airport

It was a mild drama yesterday at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Two (MMA2), Ikeja, Lagos,  Nigeria when athletes from the South East zone of the country protested the cancellation of  their flight  by Aero Contractors.

The athletes were on their way to Owerri after taking part in the just concluded Special  Olympic Championship held in Lagos. The athletes and their coaches, who were stranded at the  airport for hours, had arrived at about 12 noon yesterday for an  Aero Contractors flight to  Owerri. It was scheduled to take off by 2.30 p.m. but few minutes to their departure time,  the flight was cancelled by the airline, though the officials did not explain what went  wrong.

The announcement by the airline officials that the athletes will be flown to Port Harcourt  airport rather than Owerri, however, sparked a protest.

“We cannot go to Port Harcourt. We are not sure that when we get to Port Harcourt they will  take us to Owerri. That is why we are angry,” one of the athletes told P.M.Sports.

Aero Contractors airline later sent a bus to convey the athletes out of the airport  purportedly to a smaller plane.

—Simon Ateba