The Federal Government has clarified why Comfort Emmanson, the female passenger accused of assaulting Ibom Air crew members, was remanded in custody, while Fuji music icon Wasiu Ayinde, popularly known as Kwam 1, faced no court action after reportedly disrupting a ValueJet flight in Abuja last week.
The Ibom Air incident, which occurred on the Uyo–Lagos route on Sunday, has sparked widespread public outrage, with many accusing authorities of applying selective justice.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Tuesday, the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Mike Achimugu, said the two situations were not comparable.
“There is no comparison here; it’s not a case of oranges and oranges. In the Kwam 1 incident, the airline did not activate its rights to take the passenger to court, so the NCAA did what it was supposed to do by petitioning the authorities to petition the passenger.
In the Ibom Air incident, maybe because their staff had been assaulted, the airline immediately activated its right to take up the matter, and it went to court,” he stated.
Achimugu explained that the NCAA was not directly involved in Emmanson’s case. In contrast, in Kwam 1’s case, the Authority issued an advisory to the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) to ban the musician from flights.
He clarified that contrary to earlier reports, Kwam 1 was not placed on a six-month ban but on an indefinite suspension pending the outcome of investigations.
On why Emmanson received a lifetime no-fly ban, Achimugu noted that airline operators are legally empowered to impose such sanctions.
