…Urges FAAN to provide CCTV footage of incident
By Chinelo Obogo
Air Peace has denied allegations of extortion and poor customer service made by Senator Adams Oshiomhole, challenging the lawmaker to provide evidence to support his accusations.
In a statement released following the senator’s Wednesday press conference in Abuja, Air Peace described Oshiomhole’s allegations as “deliberate falsehood” and accused him of lying about the airline’s operations.
A dispute erupted at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos on Wednesday morning between Air Peace and Oshiomhole, with both parties offering different accounts of what led to disruption at the terminal. According to the airline, Oshiomhole missed his flight due to the closed boarding process and then resorted to violence by physically assaulting their members of staff and forcefully barricading the entrance of the terminal. The airline said due to the senator’s actions, it was forced to activate contingency plans and boarded the affected passengers through another terminal. But responding to the airline’s allegations in Abuja on Wednesday, the former Edo State Governor and painted a different picture, accusing Air Peace of extortion and discrimination. He alleged that the airline sold last-minute tickets at inflated prices while denying boarding to passengers who booked online, discriminatory treatment of passengers and ticket racketeering. Oshiomhole then claimed that multiple passengers faced similar treatment, including a woman with a six-month-old baby who was allegedly charged an additional N109,100 on top of her original N146,000 ticket.
Again, the airline in a statement in the early hours of Thursday, contradicted the senator’s claims about overbooking and on-spot ticket sales, revealing that the aircraft took off with over 30 empty seats and that it would have been in their financial interest to accommodate Oshiomhole and other late passengers rather than fly with empty seats, but that they rather placed priority on their on-time performance. According to Air Peace, the senator jumping on the baggage conveyor belt, prevented check-in processes for other flights, barricaded the entrance gate, prevented terminal access and deliberately instigated other passengers against the airline.
“We challenge Senator Oshiomhole to bring evidence of a passenger that was extorted. None of our staff ever extorted any passenger. In fact, no ticket was sold after the closure of check-in on that flight. Everyone who flew bought their ticket prior to the flight closure. He was not fighting for anyone. He came to the airport late and was told that he was late. He then began to foment trouble,” the statement read.
Air Peace then called on the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to release CCTV footage to vindicate their version of events. “We call on the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to release the CCTV coverage starting from the time Senator Oshiomhole entered the airport, for Nigerians to see,” the airline stated.