Expert cautions on emerging threat to civil aviation

Following penultimate Friday’s incident on an Ibom Air flight, where a passenger was forcefully de-boarded after shouting that the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, must not be sworn in, an aviation security expert has cautioned aviation authorities to look into an emerging threat to civil aviation in Nigeria. Daily Trust on Sunday reports that there […]

Following penultimate Friday’s incident on an Ibom Air flight, where a passenger was forcefully de-boarded after shouting that the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, must not be sworn in, an aviation security expert has cautioned aviation authorities to look into an emerging threat to civil aviation in Nigeria.

Daily Trust on Sunday reports that there was a mild drama on the Abuja-Lagos bound Ibom Air flight when the passenger, Obiajulu Ujah, started exhibiting what the airline called “inappropriate behavior,” saying that Tinubu should not be sworn in on May 29.

He was de-boarded and subsequently handed over to the security agencies. Ujah was arraigned on Monday and is currently remanded in prison.

Speaking with Daily Trust on Sunday, a former commandant of the Murtala Muhammad Airport, Group Captain John Ojikutu, (retd), said authorities “must look seriously into these evolving trends in threats to the civil aviation coming after the general elections that appear unacceptable to some people who are looking out for a violent way to express themselves.”

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He said, “What happened on Ibom Air could be a dry run for the big things coming up to happen. We had a similar occurrence after the June 12 election annulment when a Nigeria Airways aircraft was hijacked to Niger Republic. The hijackers breached both the airport and airline security.”