Ibom Air releases statement after airport security bundled “unruly” ‘Obidient’ off plane

Ibom Air, on Saturday, apologised to passengers for the delay they experienced, while airport security officials in Abuja tried to disembark a passenger who caused a scene.

A male passenger who seemed an ‘Obidient’ was whisked off the aircraft after he publicly spoke against the inauguration of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, on Friday. ‘Obidient(s)’ is a sobriquet for supporters of Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election.

Aniekan Essienette, the Group Manager, Marketing and Communication, in a press release, shed light on the incident.

“We wish to inform the public about an incident on our 6pm flight from Abuja to Lagos on Friday, March 31, 2023.

“A passenger stood up and began addressing other passengers in a manner considered inappropriate and unruly, as he was making other passengers nervous.

“Our crew deemed his continuous unruly behaviour 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.

“We apologise to the affected passengers for the time it took to disembark this passenger, which caused an otherwise on-time departure to be delayed by an hour,” he said.