Nigeria To Sanction British Airways Over Assault On Nigerian
Passengers
Nigeria
may sanction British Airways (BA) over the maltreatment of its
136 Nigerian passengers at Heathrow Airport in London last
month.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has
ordered BA to furnish it with details of compensation to the
passengers between today and Monday next week.
It is to give full details of the flight on March
27, which was supposed to covey the passengers, as well as those
of flight schedule, arrivals, and departures in the past six
months.
And it is to provide details of baggage loss,
delays, flight cancellations, and overbooking in the past six
months.
The NCAA summoned BA officials to an emergency
meeting on Thursday; based on a directive the Government gave it
to investigate the matter.
The government also warned BA to desist from the
act or face sanction.
The NCAA Director General, Harold Demuren,
frowned at the incident and condemned the absence of BA's
European staff at the meeting.
BA only sent in three Nigerian employees - Tunde
Seymour, Tunde Peku, and Willie Emretane - to the meeting.
The order for the investigation was handed down
on Wednesday by Minister of State on Air Transportation, Felix
Hyatt, who disclosed that Aso Rock wants the matter to be given
priority.
He said the maltreatment of the passengers was
wrong, and that the government will not put up with it.
The passengers, who were on their way from the
United Kingdom, were ordered out of the plane after one of them
spoke up for a deportee who was being bundled into the aircraft.
Up to 20 police officers joined immigration
officials to evacuate the passengers after the pilot refused to
fly out.
However, BA issued a statement which said it
acted in accordance with the British Immigration Act 1971, under
which "it is a legal requirement for an airline to carry
deportees, and British Airways, like all other airlines, must
comply with this law.
Ill treatment of Nigerian passengers by foreign
airlines is a recurring decimal.
Last year, former Minister of Aviation, Femi
Fani-Kayode, warned BA and other foreign airlines about it, and
threatened to apply the law on them if they fail to change.
MP/MICHAEL
