The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development has vowed to sanction the airport official who released the obscene video footage of the unruly passenger on the Ibom Air flight from Uyo to Lagos.

The Minister, while reacting to the incident involving an Ibom Air passenger, Ms. Comfort Emmason, said that while he supports the filming of the recalcitrant behaviour of the passenger as evidence to prosecute her, he deplored the release of such evidence containing indecent exposure to the public to ridicule her.

He said, “That is totally unacceptable to us. We will not fold our arms and tolerate the debasing of womanhood.”
To this extent, the Minister directed that whoever released that part of the video containing the indecent exposure amongst the staff should be singled out and adequately sanctioned.

He disclosed that apart from the indefinite flight ban imposed on the said unruly passenger by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Police had promptly arraigned her on Monday morning at the Ikeja Magistrates’ Court for criminal offences and remanded her at Kirikiri Prisons as she could not provide adequate sureties in court.

He also directed that the airlines must continue to train and retrain their staff in public relations and how to deal with potentially explosive situations in order to defuse them promptly or nip them in the bud, except when it becomes inevitable.

He further directed a joint security meeting between relevant agencies by next week for better coordination of security measures in situations like this or similar ones we witnessed recently.

The Minister stressed that for genuinely aggrieved passengers, there are laid-down remedies to address grievances, adding that the Consumer Protection Directorate of the NCAA has consistently advertised these remedies and there is no point trying to take the laws into one’s hands, which may lead to dire consequences.

He assured that the government will continue to apply equal sanctions available in the aviation sector on any such erring passengers, that is, lengthy flight bans, and report the matters to other law enforcement agencies to do their bit within their power.