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OPINION: ‘Protest’ That ‘Restructured’ Nigeriass

Published

1 year ago

August 6, 2024

By Suyi Ayodele

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should count himself lucky. What he feared most has happened to him. What his predecessors in office could not do, he has done effortlessly. What others before him, including him, had used in the past to deceive Nigerians, while campaigning, but would never do when they got to the office, God has made it happen for Tinubu, seamlessly! Nobody can use it for political sloganeering anymore. Nigeria is ‘restructured’ without anyone calling for a roundtable discussion. Nature abhors vacuum. The cosmic has taken care of our desires.

We can no longer live under the pretence of Nigeria being one. The August 1, 2024 ‘nationwide protest’ that is no protest, has taken care of that for us. I have never believed in the ‘protest’. I have never believed that it would achieve anything. But I have been proved wrong! The ‘protest’ has brought to the fore the uniqueness of the three regions that constitute Nigeria.

The North has remained monolithic with the outcome of the ‘protest’ over there. Those children of the North have demonstrated to us in practical forms what their forebears had hidden from us for ages. The North does not think like the rest of the nation. Hunger also has its different forms. We now know that when people are hungry over there in the North, anything becomes edible. Computers now taste like masara (maize). Furniture tastes like tuwo shinkafa delicacies. Concrete slabs and iron rods are jollof rice spices. One of the ‘protesters’ in Kano carried a placard with the inscription that the price of ‘weed’ (Indian Hemp) should be reduced. I agreed with him. Once one is dazed, hunger will no longer be felt! What afflicts the North is different from what afflicts the South. It is like a case of the affliction of the mother being different from that of her child. The child is crying for breast milk, the mother needs a plate of amala to be able to lactate very well!

Even in the preparation for the ‘protest’, the North had its own agenda. It became open to us all that what afflict them is the temporary loss of power to the South. So, the ‘protest’ provided an opportunity for the leaders of the North to relieve themselves of the bottled-up frustration. Their foot soldiers who invaded the Palace of the Sultan of Sokoto in the name of #EndBadGovernance ‘protest’ asked, openly, for the Military to take over. Their war cry was Sojaji muke so (Soldiers take over). For them over there, bad governance ends only when the Military takes over, and a General Halidu Maisari Maiduguru is announced as the Head of State! Shame! In Kano, they paraded the streets, flying Russian flags! Yes, the North has a message for us in the ‘protest’, to wit: we will rather go our own way than lose power to the South. My reading of the ‘protest’ over there, of course. Why those boys did not shout yancin kai (independence) or araba (secession), beats my imagination!

I have been wondering if any leader in the North who contributed to the warped reasoning of those completely untrainable children we saw in the various videos of the ‘protest’ has sat down to ruminate over the creatures the region has donated to the Federation. What goes on in their minds now, I mean the leaders over there, who for decades have held the poor children of the North down, depriving them of any vestige of education? Do they think, as I do, that the next round of ‘protest’ will come for them, the leaders? I can imagine (God forbid o), that in the name of a ‘protest’, I found myself in a library! The police and other state authorities would arrest me reading! I can’t imagine how I would be able to take my eyes off the collections in the library; of how many synopses of the books I quickly want to read. But not so with the ‘protesters’ of the North. The brooms, waste bins and window frames are of more value to them. Someone made them like that. We are all in trouble. So much for the ‘protesters’ across the Niger River! A Mas’ud Muhammad Yakubu, who claimed to be a “Youth Copper” in the Federal University, Dutse, and holds a B. Sc in Criminology and Security Studies, captures the whole event in his “I am afraid, we have a problem in Kano!” piece that has since gone viral!

Let us look at the ‘protest’ in the South-East. I say this with every sense of honesty: if there is anytime I wish I were of Igbo stock, it is now. During the preparation for the ‘protest’, I was apprehensive. I asked myself whether the Ndigbo would allow the thunder to strike them for the second time on the same spot. I was alarmed. The genocidal campaign against the Ndigbo over the ‘protest’ was palpable; very ominous! Who would talk to my kedu, odinma brothers; who would lend them brains? Lagos was waiting for them. The “Oro Court”, as my great senior and Students’ Union President at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Akeem Adeola Soetan, is wont to call them, was waiting for the Ndigbo in Lagos.

Alas! The Ndigbo proved to be the wisest of all ‘protesters’ in all! Rather than hit the streets and be slaughtered like it happened in the 1966 pogrom in the North, the Ndigbo hit their homes. They borrowed the debased cliché of Senator Godswill Akpabio, our Senate President, who said that while those who wanted to protest could go ahead, he, and other warped minds would be in their homes making merriment! The sons and daughters of Ndigbo did what those waiting in the wings for them did not expect. They stayed indoors, drinking and winning. One of them, a friend, even had the temerity to send me a video of him eating ugba and fish and washing it down with fresh juice. Ka bu ndu, (is this life?) was my response!

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Even in their five states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, there was peace. Rather than making themselves available for the security agents kitted with deadly arsenals to ‘curtail’ the ‘protest’ in the East, the Ndigbo locked up their shops and imposed on themselves “sit-at-home”! In frustration, and somewhere in Lagos, when the ‘waiting-in-the-wings’ state thugs stationed to “deal” with the Igbo boys and girls that would come out to protest, they mistook a Yoruba lady, one Olufunmilayo for an Igbo. I watched the video of the encounter, and I shook my head. Does hunger separate tribes? What if Olufunmilayo had turned out to be an Ibo lady? That is the question I have not been able to answer.

Granted, we have so many Ndigbo guys that are terribly bad. I have encountered a lot of them. But the Ndigbo are in good company as other tribes of the nation also have their own fair share of the bad and the ugly. We also equally have so many fantastic ones too that through them, you would wish to be an Ndigbo. Every tribe has such two categories. Even the North has so many other fellows that are more rational in thinking than many educated southerners. So, why should we prepare the slaughter slabs for an ethnic group over a ‘nationwide protest’ because our man is in power? What is the difference between the proponents of the “Ndigbo must go” campaign and the Kano boys who went to a library and looted brooms and dustbins leaving books intact?

We are talking of hunger that is ravaging the entire nation here. But even at that, there are still some people who don’t feel the pang like others. If a bag of rice goes for N100,000 today, and a bag of beans goes for N500,000, that Alaba International Market Igbo traders will buy them, while the ora esa (all right sir) streets urchins unleashed on the ‘protesters’ will still be on the streets begging! Now that the Ndigbo have shown that they can be ‘peaceful’ in the face of State provocation, who carries the shame? This, however, does not mean that the South-East is completely free from the malady that afflicts the entire country. But in this instance, the region has demonstrated that it could also do things differently from the ‘nzogbu nzogbu’ battle cry! That is a new lesson for us that the East thinks differently. But the greatest ‘restructuring’ from the South-East to the rest of us in this ‘protest’ is that should the country go aflame, the Ndigbo will watch from afar. I may be wrong!

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Now, we come to the ‘sophisticated’ South-West, and to a great extent, the South-South. I wept for Yorubaland! The region proved to be the most unfortunate group in the ‘protest’, no thanks to the Abóbakú (the one who dies with the king) group, which ensured that everything about the hunger in the land is as a result of the ‘hatred’ for Tinubu! I feel so ashamed each time I come across the state-sponsored narratives that have emanated from the South-West over this ‘protest’. So many disgusting narratives, everywhere! But that comes with its own lesson. We no longer, as Yoruba, have any moral justification to accuse any tribe in Nigeria of ethnic bigotry. We are worse, down here! Big shame!

Again, the pro-government groups and individuals in the South-West have also shown that Nigeria is a superglued nation! For many of these ‘Hallelujah’ groups, it doesn’t matter if Tinubu performs in office or not as long as it is a Yoruba man that is there! They don’t care if or not their man would be leaving behind any legacy. These are the set of people (very many of them hungry and beggarly), who have taken the “Èmilókán” campaign to a level that no matter how fatuous a government policy is, as long it is Tinubu that initiated it, ‘all true sons and daughters of Yorubaland’ must embrace it! These are educated people for crying out loud! Among this group is “Eleyi Dapo yi” (this one called Dapo), Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, who sees the entire pain in the land as the handiwork of those who lost the 2023 election. Governor Abiodun said Nigerians are “sore losers” and advised them to wait for 2027 if they wanted a regime change. To him and many others with that kind of thinking faculty, the hunger in the land is because people lost elections. The inability of farmers to go to their farms because of farmers’/herders’ clashes can be traced to election losers. The floating of the Naira, poor economic policies of the government and the extravagance at all levels of government is all about 2027. Pity!

When you have a president surrounded by a Governor Abiodun, Senator Akpabio, and other unfeeling aides, you cannot but have the type of address that President Tinubu delivered on Sunday to the “protesters” and their agitations, where the President said nothing! For me, I never expected anything from Aso Rock, and when I got nothing, I was least bothered! “There’s something I have to tell you: How to communicate difficult news in tough situations”, is authored by Charles Foster, a licensed psychotherapist. In closing, I have something to tell President Tinubu thus: Sir, there was no protest on August 1. You have nothing to fear. That is why your broadcast did not convey anything!

News

PAP Slots To Itsekiri Privilege Not Right, Group Insists

Published

5 hours 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

7 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.

News

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

Published

7 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.