By Ada Samson, Abuja
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has explained that it is not its responsibility to charge or ban erring airlines passengers, following the incident that led to the ban of Comfort Emmason, the passenger who assaulted Ibom Air staff on a flight from Uyo to Lagos on Sunday.
Mike Achimugu, the NCAA’s director of public affairs and consumer protection, made the clarification on Monday on his X handle, where he clarified that the agency does not dictate airline prosecutions, and the court will decide the outcome.
Achimugu explained that the Ibom Air incident differs from the case involving Fuji musician Wasiu Ayinde (KWAM 1), as the NCAA had sufficient time to review and provide guidance to the airline in the latter situation.**
The KWAM 1 incident occurred on August 5 when the musician, aboard a ValueJet flight, was observed drinking from a flask. A cabin crew member intervened, suspecting the contents to be alcohol—which is banned on flights in Nigeria.
When asked to hand over the flask, KWAM 1 declined, stating that it contained doctor-prescribed medication.
Initially, on August 7, the NCAA imposed a six-month travel ban on the artist. However, the following day, the agency revised the penalty to an indefinite suspension while awaiting further investigation.
Regarding the Ibom Air matter, Achimugu noted that the airline took action on its own, relying on the evidence at hand.
“In this case, the airline exercised its rights to do what they needed to do, right? And AON, based on some of the evidences already available, because while the investigations are ongoing, you can still be working with what is available to you,” he said.
“Now, for you who say you are in the industry, when you see a passenger hitting a cabin crew member in the way the lady was doing, and the fight she had with the people who came to restrain her, you may have to agree that the airlines had every right to announce a ban.
“Yeah, of course, one would expect that at the end of all of these things, maybe the ban could be shortened or even removed altogether.
“But as of the moment, if they feel that that’s the right thing, because again, don’t forget, airline staff are also human beings, and they’re also fellow Nigerians.
“Some of them are your brothers and your sisters, too. And they deserve the same courtesy that passengers also deserve. Now, nobody deserves to be beaten up or hit in the manner that occurred in this flight.
“Based on video evidence available, AON has made such a decision. It is within their rights, because they also have been suffering some of these incidents a lot of the time.
“Remember, there was an airport incident where three drunk people had mid-air between London and Nigeria, caused a situation that could have crashed that flight.
“To date, Airpeace feels aggrieved that nobody issued an advisory for those passengers to be blacklisted. But you see, evidence of what happened on board was not made available to the NCAA. So it became a case of he said, she said.
“I just want to put it out there very clearly that the NCAA did not issue an advisory to AON, and AON is within its right to ban any passenger, to blacklist a passenger. Just to make this clear.“
According to Achimugu, while carriers are entitled to initiate legal proceedings, the involved parties can mutually agree to settle privately, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of charges.
He said: “Cabin crew are in charge of, apart from your comfort, safety and security and everything on the aircraft. We have the authority there. Blocking the path of somebody who has assaulted you is also a form of restraint,” he explained.
“She wanted to restrain the passenger without laying hands on her, she’s within her rights to do so. I don’t know if it’s standard practice.
“I will have to check with director Afsek at the NCAA to check the documents and see. But look, there are different ways to restrain an unruly passenger. Standard practices can always evolve and change.”
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