1st April, 2023
The Ibom Air has apologised to its passengers after a strange man harassed passengers on its Abuja-Lagos bound flight, vowing that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu will never be sworn in as president.
The man, whose name was unknown was seen in a viral video disturbing passengers and shouting at the top of his voice, saying Tinubu must not be sworn-in on 29 May.
He was heard saying: “You all are sitting here, and Tinubu is about to be sworn in as President. Tinubu must never be sworn in. He must never be President. I am a PhD holder in law and I’ll keep saying what I am saying.”
Security operatives had to forcefully evacuate the strange man from the flight and got him arrested.
However, Ibom Air, in a statement on Saturday, issued by Aniekan Essienette, Group Manager, Marketing and Communication, said there was an incident on its 6 pm flight from Abuja to Lagos on Friday, 31 March 2023.
It said 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,” the airline said.
According to the airline, “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 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.”