FG drops charges against Ibom Air passenger, leaves KWAM1 ban to one month

The federal government has made new resolutions to instances of unruly behaviors towards Ibom Air passenger, Ms Comfort Emmanson, and ValueJet, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal (KWAM1) also referred to as K1 Del Ultimate.In a statement issued on Wednesday by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN, said he has directed Ibom Air to drop criminal charges against the passenger.

On Sunday during an Uyo-Lagos flight, Emmanson was in an altercation with an air hostess of Ibom Air. The footages shared on multiple social media sites contained instances of the passengers beating the member of the crew as she was getting bundled outside the plane her sensitive body parts were shown.She was later arraigned and remanded in Kirikiri Maximum Prisons even as the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) slammed a life ban on her. This particular case has however elicited the interest of an organ of interest Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and other Non Governmental Organizations as they maintained that she was not treated fairly.

On the ValueJet incident involving KWAM1, a famous Fuji Star, he too received a six-month ban after he disobeyed the crew instruction of not travelling with the liquid he was carrying yet he insisted on preventing the departure of the aircraft. The company suspended the licences of the flight pilots after the flight did not issue the pre- departure formalities and the aircraft could have run down KWAM1.

This had been after the Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun had ordered the Commissioner of Police, Airport Command to look into the case related to KWAM1. However, in giving updates on the developments regarding the two incidents, Keyamo explained that after meeting with important stakeholders in the sector as well as those related to the two unfortunate incidences; there are a few decisions that were made.

On the case of Comfort Emmanson, he stated that; he has talked to Ibom Airline today to withdraw the Complaint made against her. During the time when the Police was taking her Statement with the presence of her lawyer, she displayed extreme regret of her actions. After the complaining party, (Complainant) withdraws her case; the CP of Airport Command and the Police Prosecutor will ensure that the rest of the legal processes to effect her release out of Kirikiri Prisons are carried out immediately this week.

I have also consulted with the leadership of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) whom I urged to lift the life-time flying ban imposed to her and they have agreed. The AON will make the details of the resolution available to the public later.” In the case of KWAM1, the Minister had instructed the NCAA “to make his flight ban a period of one month.” He added that FAAN would equally partner with the music star with the idea of enlisting him as a future ambassador of the appropriate airport security procedures.

He further added that, KWAM 1 should be publicly forgiven thus making the NCAA to withdraw its criminal complaints against KWAM 1 that it made against him earlier with the Police. On Captain Oluranti Ogoyi, and the co-pilot, First Officer Ivan Oloba of ValueJet in whose case licences were suspended he said “the NCAA is to restore their licences after the same period of one-month ban after they go through some mandatory professional re-appraisal. It will be disclosed by NCAA the details.

The minister also made the statement that he had instructed all the concerned Aviation agencies to liaise with other complementing agencies not in the aviation industry to promptly initiate a retreat next week to re-train and prepare our Aviation security personnel on how to deal with disruptive and errant passengers and how to demonsalate potentially explosive situations. The Press will cover the retreat in its entirety with the possibility of asking all the pertinent questions.”

“The Airlines will also get their session where the behaviour and disposition of their service staff towards the members of the travelling will be all the attention,” he added. Keyamo pointed out that valuable lessons have been learnt by all sides to the two incidents which he said were unfortunate and the airport security protocol as well, especially, have been well highlighted to the traveling public.

He continued, “At least, the episodes have served to increase the concern of the people in respect to the right way to conduct themselves in the aviation space.Both they and the airlines vehicles staffs involved committed clear wrongs so far as all facts in our case are detailed and all facts within the knowledge of the community as the case may be. Keyamo made it clear that no one among the actors can keep on bringing the injury or injustice committed against them yet they were equally culpable.

To him, all the above decisions made by the government and the airline operators were purely made out of compassion. He observed that the government can never give itself to the lowest emotions, politically motivated opinions or distorted legal judgments when there is clear encroachment of laws. This is also a clear message that we are making that we are very serious with safety and security in our aviation sector and that we have decided to draw a line with these clemencies,” he indicated.