Why we kicked anti-Tinubu passenger off aircraft — Ibom Air

Nigerian airline, Ibom Air clarifies the reason an anti-Tinubu passenger was booted out of its Abuja-Lagos flight on Friday.

The passenger, who identified himself as a member of the Obidient political movement, made remarks about the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He further accused other passengers of not doing enough to prevent the inauguration of the President-elect.

The airline stated that the anti-Tinubu passenger’s behaviour was unsafe to other passengers, hence, swift action from its security team, along with Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) personnel.

Providing an insight into the incident, Ibom Air in a statement by Group Manager, Marketing and Communication, Aniekan Essienette, said the team had to forcefully boot him out.

She said, “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.

“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.”