News

OPINION: Kneeling For Imams Of Northern Nigeria

Published

1 year ago

May 20, 2024

By Lasisi Olagunju

A minister suffered severe abuse and reprimand from the elites of the North last week because she asked the North to choose mass education first before mass marriage. Sixty-four years after independence, we are still struggling to understand Nigeria’s Muslim North and its ways. A 1950 letter to the editor of Gaskiya, northern Nigeria’s preeminent Hausa newspaper, should tell us something about the mystery of the region.

The letter appeared in the newspaper’s number 391 of 8 March, 1950 on page 2.

It reads:

“To the Editor – I beg to lay this complaint before you, so that you may approach the Sultan in order that I may achieve my desire. I am of slave descent, belonging to one of the families of court slaves. Both my father and mother were slaves of a certain emir. My mother’s name is Munayabo, and my father’s Ci-wake. A well-to-do man has fallen in love with me, and I love him too, but he has got four wives already. For this reason, we find it difficult to make arrangements for living together. I asked a learned mallam, who told me to ask my father’s consent first, according to Islamic law, and also that of the authorities. If they agree to the proposal, I can become his concubine, Islamic law allows it. This is what the mallam told me. Well, Mr. Editor, my father, Islamic law, I myself and the rich man have agreed, only the authorities remain. May they agree to make proper arrangements for me so that I may be allowed into the harem of the man. My father’s and my mother’s names show that I really belong to a family of former slaves.

“I believe there are quite a number of girls such as me in the North. We have found that if girls in our position were allowed by the authorities, as is permitted by the law, to live as concubines in the harems of princes and well-to-do and important officials, the number of prostitutes who walk the streets would be reduced considerably. In this way, it may be possible for some of us to give birth to children who will one day be useful to the country. In this way, I may give birth to a son who may even one day become an emir. This will be better than our walking about in the towns and giving birth to children without proper fathers. Our religion permits it, but it is the authorities that are closing the door against us. I am sure that if the authorities allowed it, certain great houses in the North would accommodate thousands of us.

“Mr. Editor, I have given you a full explanation. We have come to an agreement with the said rich man, and are only waiting for the consent of the authorities on behalf of the Sultan. I wish you would lay my statement, as set out here, before the authorities and not allow room for destructive criticism. I should like the critics to understand that it is not my father who is trying to sell me into slavery. It is at my own free will that I desire to live in a big harem with a man who has already got four wives. I adjure you by Allah, Mr. Editor, to publish this letter so that I may get a reply and permission from the authorities.”

(Signature)”.

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I got the above letter from Joseph Schacht’s ‘Islam in Northern Nigeria’, published in Studia Islamica, 1957, No. 8. The author said the signatory of the letter was “a well-educated young girl who had passed with distinction through the modern Government College for Girls.” Note that the letter was not written in the 19th century. It was written a few years before independence.

For better or for worse, a lot has shifted since that letter was composed. I do not think girls are still born over there into ‘slavery’ and thus have to beg to be allowed to marry. What I know (and everybody knows) is that the North routinely stages mass weddings for hordes of nameless girls and ladies. Are they children of slaves?

I am a Muslim from southern Nigeria and each time strange things happen in the North in the name of Islam, I exchange glances of surprise with my brothers here. Schacht (1902-1969), the author of ‘Islam in Northern Nigeria’, was a British-German professor of Arabic and Islam at Columbia University in New York. He was the leading western scholar on Islamic law. In that article, he said the Muslims of our North whom he saw in 1957 “form a very isolated community.” He wrote that “most of their isolation is voluntary and intentional” and that “they are generally afraid of being contaminated by modern ideas, and particularly by the non-Islamic South.” I strongly believe they still prefer their isolation from “modern ideas” and from the South. And we are still in the same country. Shouldn’t we just restructure and redefine boundaries and contacts?

I am being very careful choosing my words as I write this. I have written some paragraphs and cancelled them because I am, like the girls of Niger State, an orphan with no capacity for self-defence. But, it would appear that northern Nigeria’s biggest business today is mass wedding and mass production of children. After child-making, it has religion, very economically lucrative political religion. With this combo, it wrecks itself and stunts the country, and sows contagious poverty across the land. I hope no one is going to contest these.

I will be shocked if you did not follow last week’s big fight between the Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, and the northern elite led by imams from Niger State. The woman offended the North because she said no to a plan to shell out 100 orphaned girls to some randy men in a mass wedding. And because of that, press conferences and acid rains of sermons poured across the swarthy region on Friday. They said the ‘condescending’ female minister from the South overstepped her bounds. They said it was their religious culture to assist female orphans to solve their problems by marrying them off en masse, so that they can multiply and fill the earth with children. They did not tell us if their culture has plans only for the girls while male orphans are left to roam the street as Almajirai.

The image a mass-wedding evokes in me is that of tethered rams at sallah markets. Or, more appropriately, a mass of what slave merchants called dabukia (female with plump breasts) and farkhah (female with small breasts) in mid-19th century Sokoto, Kano and Katsina slave markets. I have read some defences for the botched mass wedding of Niger State. Some said the girls and their families begged for it and the speaker paid as a man of God. Let us assume the girls truly begged for the weddings, couldn’t their helper just give the ‘help’ without the humiliation of a mass sale?

Yet, it is said that the loud mass weddings we see in the North are followed almost immediately by quiet mass divorces. Yusuf M. Adamu and Rabi Abdulsalam Ibrahim, both of Bayero University, Kano, did a seminal work on what they call “the rashness of divorce in Hausa society.” In their ‘Spheres, Spaces and Divorcees in Zawarawa: A Hausa movie (2018)’, quoting Solivetti (1994:252), they say Hausa Muslim society has “one of the highest rates of divorce and remarriage in the world.” It is also in that piece that I see a raw passage on commodification of marriage in Hausa land. A character in the movie exclaims: “The prices of things in Nigeria are rising, especially crude oil, gold and diamond. The prices are rising. But why has the value of women fallen so low? (Tattalin arziki ya na ta tashi a Nijeriya, musamman ma na man fetur da gwalagwalai da lu’ulu’u. kullum dada hauhawa su ke. Amma farashin mata, ya a ke ya fadi wanwar?).” Read the various defences in support of the controversial mass wedding in Niger State. Do a character assessment of the suitors, especially the two said to have assisted their in-laws to pay ransom but now want “marriage without delay or their money back.” Have the angry Imams and mallams asked what kind of husbands those ones will be?

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Nigeria is a composite of contradictions; what is poison in the south is sweet sauce in the north. The Ovimbundu (Bantu) people of Southern Africa say that the mist of the coast is the rain of the desert. In the place where I come from, mass children is interpreted as mass misery (omo beere, òsì beere). We also warn that marriage is easy to contract, what about soup money? Mass weddings were conducted yesterday, last year and in the last decade in the North. What happened to them? Where are the benefits beyond their adding to the hardship of the destitute? Where I come from, we say a mother does not feel the weight of her baby (omo kìí wúwo l’éhìn ìyá è). But the trunk of the North’s elephant is, by choice, made a burden for it to carry. The North’s way of life hurts where I come from – Western Nigeria. I am not the only one who has this thought. While the southern bird avoids waters that degrade the girl-child, the duck of the North preens and bathes in them. Embarrassing stories such as of this mass wedding stuff are so common with northern political and religious leaders. A hail of threats against counter views comes common too. And when they happen, questions are asked down south about the sense in sharing this Nigerian complex.

‘Season of Migration to the North’, described by a reviewer as a “sensual work of deep honesty and incandescent lyricism”, is a 1966 novel by Sudanese novelist, Tayeb Salih. Its setting should have been northern Nigeria. Forced marriage is part of that story. And, in that story, we hear the voice of Hosna bint Mahmoud promising “like the blade of a knife” that “if they force me to marry, I’ll kill him and kill myself.” And, she does just that. Such involuntary, fatal nuptials are routinely tied in our North. They always do it. We will always beg them to stop because their way hurts us.

The people I am begging here are the real kabiyesis of the North – the Imams and the mallams. They make the rules and reign as the lords of the north-west, the north-east and parts of the north-central. But, will they listen and stop? They will not. They are what the Yoruba call kò níí gbà, omo elétíkunkun. And we won’t keep quiet.

Nigeria is an unending struggle against conscientious ignorance. The fundamentalism that rules Afghanistan has its professors in northern Nigeria. It is not edifying to faith. Read again the letter I started this article with. Pre-independence northern Nigeria had what was called ‘Fight Against Ignorance Committee’. There is no need to ask what the result of that initiative was. If the committee succeeded, the North would not have the world’s largest number of out-of-school-children; it would not attack a minister for asking it to choose education over marriage; banditry and terrorism and mass poverty would not be the region’s stable staple.

So, when we ask the elite of the North to drop their bad ways, it is not because we hate them and their North. No. It is because we benefit from the Hausa wisdom that emphasises peace over pie: “it is easy enough to find food but hard to get away to a place where you can eat it in peace (Ba samu’n abinchi ke da wuya, wurinda zaka chishi ke da wuya)”. We live in the same house with the North, and while doing so, we strongly believe that we deserve our peace. That was why that woman minister from the south, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, tore the North’s mass-wedding scroll and insisted on Nigeria adding real value to the lives of those 100 hapless girls. It is the reason I wrote this.

News

PAP Slots To Itsekiri Privilege Not Right, Group Insists

Published

1 hour ago

August 12, 2025

Editor

Warns Itsekiri Youths To Stop Attacks On Otuaro

A Warri-based rights group known as Ijaw People’s Development Initiative (IPDI) has insisted that Itsekiri people were not part of the Presidential Amnesty Programme during the 2009 proclamation hence should take PAP slots given to them as a privilege and not right.

The IPDI in an earlier statement had cautioned on attacks on the Administrator of the PAP by some Itsekiri youths and their allegation of bias and exclusion from the PAP by the current administrator, saying it’s a privilege given to them and not right inasmuch as they (Itsekiri ) distanced themselves from the amnesty programme during its proclamation in 2009.

Replying to the IPDI, a group – Warri Youth Council, WYC – described the IPDI as faceless and all sorts of names.

But in a shift reaction through a statement, president of the IPDI, Comrade Austin Ozobo said the Itsekiri youths name calling on his organisation was laughable, stressing that the “IPDI is a revered rights advocacy group, known for its proactiveness in the defense of Niger Delta rights against oppression and marginalization over the years.”

Ozobo, while insisting that the Itsekiri people were not part of the PAP arrangements at the initial stage but were only captured with 500 slots after the National Assembly and their daughter who was married to the then National Security Adviser, Gen Owoye Andrew Azazi pleaded to the then administrator of the PAP, Kingsley Kuku, warned them not to “abuse the privilege but be grateful to Dr Otuaro for the additional slots given to them to add to the earlier Five Hundred Slots.”

He said: “We are still maintaining our earlier stand that the itsekiris were not part of the Presidential Amnesty Programme during the proclamation but they were later considered and included into the Amnesty Programme following an appeal by their daughter who was married to the late National Security Adviser, Gen Owoye Andrew Azazi.

“We wish to reiterate that no disarmament and demobilization of the presidential Amnesty programme was held in Koko, Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State, the first, second and third phases of the programme were held in Agbarho and 3 battalions in Delta State.

“The Itsekiris only submitted a political list of their Five hundred slots given to them by the then administrator of the program, Dr Kingsley KuKu, and that should not in any way be seen as disarmament.

“It is an abrupt and reckless attempt by the Itsekiris to now forcefully be crying for inclusion through blackmail, the Itsekiris, who distanced themselves from the Presidential Amnesty Programme only to have a change of mind after seeing the success of the program do not merit a single slot.

“We are aware that they wrote several publications to applaud the federal government for disarming the Ijaw people, alleged that the Ijaw killed their people.

“They stated further that Itsekiris were not militants and will not embrace the program, stressing that their youths were enlightened, educated and peaceful but unfortunately the same people are now shamelessly crying for inclusion.

“The Itsekiris can’t eat their cake and have it. They are a people of double standard, they speak with both sides of their mouths. We are not surprised about the new tactics and strategy of these ungrateful lots.

“It is worthy of note that it was not the National Assembly that compelled the then administrator Dr KuKu to accept the Itsekiris into the amnesty program, their petition failed. The National Assembly after hearing from KuKu saw that the Itsekiri didn’t have a case, the then National Assembly only appealed to President Jonathan and Hon. Kuku on humanitarian grounds for the Itsekiris to be included on the basis of impacted community and 500 places was negotiated for them, case was dismissed,” the statement reads.

News

OPINION: Flight Attendants And King Wasiu Ayinde’s Curse

Published

3 hours ago

August 11, 2025

Editor

By Lasisi Olagunju

My literature teacher told me that situational irony is a fire station burning down, or a Babaláwo dying of Mágùn. Some 40 years ago, Fuji musician, Wasiu Ayinde, cursed his enemies in a song that they would challenge a moving vehicle, stand arrogantly in its front and then lose their limbs to the fury of a tipper truck: “Otá mi ‘ò níi yà f’ókò, akóyoyo ní o kan l’ése…” Curses don’t act the same day they are pronounced; they ponder well before they act. Sometimes curses, like defective guns, backfire. Wasiu’s 40-year-old invocation turned on him on Tuesday last week. He shocked himself and the world with his using his own body to block a moving airplane. He was lucky; his inner head assisted the outer to duck from death.

It is cool that he has begged the pilot and her crew members for forgiveness. He also apologised to his ‘father’ and father of the nation, the president. Even if the expression of regrets was merely for the optics, that the guilty publicly accepted his guilt would mean he won’t be kept kneeling till eternity. But, does the law accept apologies? Should it accept remorse as enough restitution. We will soon know.

American professors of Sociology, Mark Cooney and Scott Phillips tell us in the March 2013 edition of the ‘Sociological Forum’ that apology can be complete and can be incomplete: “A complete apology has several components, including admission of wrongdoing, acceptance of responsibility, expression of remorse, and a promise not to repeat (the wrong). Not all apologies are complete. Some do not admit wrongdoing (‘I am sorry if anybody took offence’). Others are mere expressions of remorse (‘I am sorry you were hurt’).” The complete apology is the one that remembers to add the third leg: ‘I won’t do it again.’ You don’t say sorry today and issue fresh threats tomorrow against your victim.

The plane-stopper should by now know that some fights are not worth one’s life. A medicine required that the ingredients be ground like pepper; our star singer thought it was bravery to make himself one of those ingredients. If he was an Oyo-Yoruba man, he would have heard his elders say “a kì í fi ara ẹni í ṣe oògùn alọ̀kúnná.” I congratulate him on being alive to say and sing sorry.

In matters of misbehaviour, very many big men and women are ‘Malla’; Wasiu is simply unfortunate because hubris stripped him naked. Flight crew and flight attendants get routinely harassed and insulted, sometimes assaulted by beings who think they are bigger than the rules. A lady I call T did her industrial attachment under me as News Editor of the Nigerian Tribune in 1999. She later graduated from the University of Ibadan and got an air hostess job. Last Friday, she told me that behind air hostesses’ pepsodent/close-up smiles are scars of insults and indignities they suffer at the hands of uncouth passengers. She told the tale of a ‘rich’ lady who asked a flight attendant to come dispose of her baby’s soiled diapers. “The hostess said ‘No. I am a food handler, I cannot use the same hands I use in serving food to dispose of your baby’s poo.’ It became an issue.” From my friend, I heard many stories of “do you know who I am”; the story of an entitled passenger who struck a cabin crew member on the face and was escorted off the aircraft before takeoff. She told the tale of drunk, unruly rich dudes coming home for Christmas from South Africa. “They demanded more alcohol than they should have. We said no and they became unruly.”

There should be more of such dramatic stories. I contacted an old university friend who used to work in that system. She told me: “Several years ago, I had a big issue with General Musa Bamaiyi who was NDLEA chairman from 1995 to 1998. He told his boys to come and offload me from the flight. What was my sin? He was carrying a gun and wanted to board and hand it over to the flight crew himself because he said cabin crew did not know how to handle such a weapon. The Captain and the Flight Officer were not on board, so, I could not let him enter with the gun. The rule is: you would need to get the captain’s permission. I told him but, maybe, he felt I was lying. The captain came in and noticed that it looked like the man had come with his trouble again; he asked Bamaiyi’s bodyguards to step off his aircraft, he collected the gun and the General went to have his seat.

“Then there was an Aviation Minister (name withheld) who threatened to get off the aircraft because I could not find a space for his bags in business class. He came with like 8pcs (eight pieces) of luggage that he wanted to stow in business class. He was the last to board and the aircraft was full. I tried explaining to him that there was no space for his bags. I offered to tag it ‘coco’ (carry on carry off) so he would pick them at the foot of the aircraft. He said no way. I offered that the photo frames in the coatroom be tagged so his bags could go in; he said no. So, I apologised that I had no space for what he had considering that the flight was full. I reported the matter to the captain. The captain said to me ‘if he wants to get off so be it.’ He got off the airplane and called my MD to sack me because, he said, I was rude. I remember a prominent Nigerian from a prominent family (name withheld) was on the flight. The man told me if I got queried and needed a witness, I was free to mention his name. The airline set up a committee to investigate the incident. At the end, they told me to resume flying as I had not done anything wrong. I wasn’t even called before the panel. The committee suggested that the airline should find a way to appease the minister but there was no reason to sack me.

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“I had another experience where the passenger refused to switch off his phone for takeoff. And he was quite rude and insulting. I reported him to the flight crew who in turn told ATC (Air Traffic Control). I think ATC called NCAA or FAAN who met the man on arrival and took him away, kept him for a while before releasing him and warning him.”

On those flights, my friend was the purser, the person in charge of the passenger cabin, sometimes the most senior. Some airlines use other terms for purser: Lead crew, cabin manager, head flight attendant, chief flight attendant.

Maltreatment of flight crew and flight attendants is not a monopoly of this place or of this age. In the Fall of 1985, four American researchers did a piece on what they called “aggressive acts directed by passengers against flight attendants aboard commercial planes from 1978 to 1980.” ‘Assaults against Airline Flight Attendants: A Victimisation Study’ is what they entitled their work. They went into media reports and spoke with victims. They found that the assault incidents were “often perpetrated by professional athletes or prominent entertainers…”

The Wall Street Journal of February 27, 1980 carried a report: ‘Skies Aren’t Friendly for Airline People Who Get Assaulted.’ It reported that “more and more flight attendants are being kicked, bitten, pawed, shoved, or slugged by airline passengers these days.” A year earlier (September 19, 1979), a flight attendant lamented to a Dallas Times-Herald reporter in these words: “It used to be that passengers were demanding; now they’re getting mean.” The newspaper reported it under the headline: ‘Verbal Abuse, Assaults against Flight Attendants Increase’.

On March 12, 2025, the Associated Press, in a report, quoted court records as saying that a passenger on a regional flight to Miami, United States, attacked a flight attendant, kicked and punched the seat of the person in front of him and swallowed rosary beads. An FBI agent’s affidavit filed in a US District Court affirmed that the passenger was traveling with his sister, who said her brother told her before the violent outburst to “close her eyes and pray because Satan’s disciple(s) had followed them onto the plane.” The 31-year-old passenger was jailed on charges including misdemeanor battery, misdemeanor obstruction of police and a felony count of criminal property damage.

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There is a newspaper called South China Morning Post. On April 4, 2025, it reported an in-flight conflict between two women passengers sitting next to each other. “One of them complained about the other’s body odour, while the other objected to the strong smell of her fellow passenger’s perfume. A verbal altercation between them soon gave way to a physical confrontation. Two female flight attendants and two male colleagues attempted to intervene and break up the fight.” As the melee ensued, one of the flight attendants shouted out: “Open your mouth. You have bitten me!” The attendant was hospitalised for injuries to her arm.

United Airlines Flight 976 was a flight from Ministro Pistarini International Airport in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on October 19–20, 1995. It recorded the most bizzare of all abuse cases so far. According to the airline, during the flight, one Gerard Finneran, a Wall Street investment banker, was refused further alcoholic beverages when the cabin crew determined he was intoxicated. “After they thwarted his attempt to pour himself more, Finneran threatened one flight attendant with violence and attacked another one. He then went into the first-class compartment which was also carrying Portuguese president Mário Soares and Argentinian foreign minister Guido di Tella and their security details. There, he climbed on a service trolley and defecated, using linen napkins to wipe himself, and later tracked and smeared his faeces around the cabin.” History has recorded the incident as “the worst case of air rage ever” with Forbes magazine, in a February 5, 2015 report saying “It’ll be hard to ever top that nasty bit of air rage, at least short of an actual act of terrorism.” The shit man, like the other offenders before him, faced prosecution and suffered punishment.

Gross as that case was, and in all the cases cited in the literature of assaults on airline workers, none shows what Wasiu Ayinde did, using his own body to stop a moving plane. It was an unfortunate way to insert oneself into history books. His Wikipedia page is already blessed with a generous mention of that tragic outing.

I don’t know if the wealthy Wasiu Ayinde has heard the story of a vast forest of beasts where pride trumped the arrogant. The story is courtesy Lakshmi Mitter, Indian author and columnist. In that story here retold by me, Lion maintains his place as the undisputed king of the jungle. But in that same forest lived arrogant Tiger, who thought himself the ULTIMATE in might, stronger than Lion. Tiger strutted about, boasting to the other animals: “Look at me; my teeth are the sharpest; I have strong jaws, my body is agile, I am the most effective of all hunters. Even the so-called king of the forest is no match for me!”

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Wise old Elephant cautioned him and referenced the old song of Sir Shina Peters of the soldier ant that derobed a giant. Elephant warned Tiger: “Do not be so proud. Sometimes, even the smallest creature, armed with wisdom, can defeat the strongest.

But proud Tiger ignored the advice; he even insulted the Elephant calling him clumsy. The wise always know it is pointless counselling a fool; so, ponderous elephant walked away. One day, Tiger strayed into a nearby village and attacked some cows, and had a heavy, enjoyable meal. The surviving cows were distraught. Their leader sought help from an unlikely ally, the Queen bee. She listened carefully and promised to act and help.

That very night, when Tiger returned for another feast, queen of the bees sent her army into action. Some bees buzzed menacingly around Tiger’s ears while others stung him sharply. Tiger roared, it growled and snarled. In pain, he swiped wildly, but in the darkness he could not see his tiny attackers. Even if he did, what could he do to a whole community of soldiers? Overwhelmed and humiliated, he fled back to the forest.

Subdued Tiger recalled the Elephant’s wise words and became wise. From that day on, Tiger became humble. He never troubled the village cows again and he never bragged about himself as being mightier than the mightiest in the forest.

At the Abuja airport on Tuesday, our celebrated musician played the tiger in the forest; he strutted and roared. He dared the law and insulted the king and his throne. His arrogance blinded him to the reality that in this forest of the skies, there are rules and the pilot is king, his attendants are law enforcement officers. Some whispers of sanity were said into his ears, but the star friend of the president wanted war and was ready for a fight. You don’t have the king as a client and be cowardly (A kìí l’óba, k’á l’ójo). The ultimate songster blocked the aircraft with his full chest, and held up crew and passengers alike.

But the “bees” were ready: airline staff, aviation authorities, and the ever-buzzing swarm of camera phones. Their unsparing sting was swift, painful and public. They denied Tiger Talazo all opportunities to lie against the truth. By the time the noise died down, the proud tiger of the tarmac had learnt a timeless truth: aircrafts have their own rules, and arrogance has no boarding pass.

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Ibom Air Passenger Emmason: Why Kwam1 Was Not Charged In Court — NCAA

Published

3 hours ago

August 11, 2025

Editor

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, has clarified that Nigerian Fuji musician Wasiu Ayinde, known as K1 de Ultimate (Kwam 1), was not charged to court by ValueJet, unlike Ibom Air’s action against its passenger, Comfort Emmanson, over alleged unruly behaviour.

The spokesperson of the NCAA, Michael Achimugu, disclosed this in an interview with DAILY POST on Monday.

His clarification comes as Emmanson, on Monday, was charged in court and remanded in prison, a development that has attracted mixed reactions from Nigerians.

Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in 2023, described Emmanson’s treatment as “double standards.”

However, Achimugu noted that the NCAA did not sue Kwam 1, nor did it sue Emmanson.

According to NCAA, the airline exercised its right to sue the alleged unruly passenger in court.

“There’s nothing to put together here. The Ibom Air passenger was arrested and charged to court by the airline.

“The airline has exercised its right to sue the unruly passenger in court. So long as that case is in court, the NCAA has no role to play in it. Okay.

“But in the Kwam 1 case, since the airline did not sue or take the passenger to court, the NCAA, which also does not have prosecutorial powers, decided to do the right thing by criminally referring the case to the Attorney General and Inspector General of Police.

“So if ValueJet had arrested and taken Kwamwan to court that day, the NCAA would not have been involved to the extent that it became involved.

“Because they didn’t do that, the NCAA did what it had to do. In this case, the airline, since the incident happened, immediately arrested the lady and sued her in court. So that’s not the NCAA’s fault.

“We did not sue Kwam 1; we did not sue this lady,” he told DAILY POST.

The NCAA petitioned Kwam 1 to the Attorney General of the Federation and the Inspector General of Police for prosecution over an alleged misconduct incident at a Nigerian airport.