Ibom Air: Anti-Tinubu passenger was disembarked over ‘unruly behaviour’

Ibom Airlines Limited (Ibom Air) says its decision to “forcefully disembark” one of its passengers was due to continuous unruly behaviour.

On Friday, March 31, 2023, a passenger (name undisclosed) caused a scene on a 6 pm flight inbound Lagos from Abuja.

TheCable had reported that the passenger was heard addressing others onboard the aircraft that Bola Tinubu, president-elect, cannot be sworn in.

In a video seen by TheCable, passengers were heard saying he was a flight risk and needs to be deboarded.

However, in a statement issued on Saturday by Aniekan Essienette, group manager of marketing and communication, Ibom Air said it was forced to disembark the passenger as a last resort.

“The passenger began addressing other passengers in a manner considered inappropriate and unruly, as he was making other passengers nervous,” Essienette said.

“Our crew deemed his continuous unruly behavior unsafe and called on airport security to help with the situation. Upon his refusal to stop or disembark peacefully, the security operatives were left with no choice but to forcefully disembark the passenger as a last option.

“We are aware that several videos and reports of this incident are circulating on social media and wish to provide the right perspective.

“Ibom Air wishes to assure our passengers that we maintain very high safety and service standards and will never compromise the safety and security of our passengers.”

Essienette further apologised to affected passengers for the time it took to disembark this passenger, “which caused an otherwise on-time departure to be delayed by an hour”.