Dana Airlines Limited has asked the Federal High Court in Enugu to dismiss a suit filed against it by a passenger in a wheelchair, Gloria Nwogbo, who accused the carrier of discrimination for preventing her from boarding after purchasing an air ticket.
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In the suit filed on her behalf by the Registered Trustees of the Disability Rights Protection Initiative, a civil society organisation, Nwogbo, who is a schoolteacher based in Anambra State, demanded N550m in damages for what she described as the humiliation she suffered in the hands of the airline on account of her disability.
She said, “I was supposed to travel on August 5, 2021 from Enugu State to Lagos. I had an appointment the following day and I needed to be in Lagos. I booked ahead. On getting to the airport, Dana Airlines (workers) told me I that would not board, because I am disabled and in a wheelchair. Of course, they said it was their protocol. They told me their protocol forbids persons in wheelchairs from travelling alone.
“I was totally devastated because it wasn’t my first time travelling by air. The humiliation was too much. I felt so bad and it caused me a lot of damage, which I can’t describe now. They made me see myself as nobody before my people and in my own country.”
But in opposition to the suit, the airline filed a counter-affidavit urging the court to dismiss her suit for lacking in merit.
While denying humiliating Nwogbo, the airline said she was prevented from boarding, because she did not comply with the airlines’ terms and conditions that any passenger in a wheelchair must be accompanied by someone else.
The airline said, “On August 5, 2021, Gloria Ogoamaka Nwogbo, a special passenger, arrived at the checking point for the respondent’s scheduled flight from Enugu to Lagos but was not accompanied by any person.
“The terms and conditions of the ticket and contract of carriage between Gloria Ogomaka Nwogbo and Dana Airlines succinctly stipulated that Gloria Ogoamaka Nwogbo, a passenger in a wheelchair, a special passenger, shall only travel on board the defendant’s plane if accompanied by another person.
“Gloria Ogomaka Nwogbo did not fulfil the requirement of being accompanied by another person to board the defendant’s aircraft on that material day.”
The airline, therefore, urged the court to dismiss her suit “with substantial cost.”
Justice F. O. Giwa-Ogunbanjo has fixed May 31, 2022 for hearing.
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