The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has clarified the reasons behind the different outcomes for two recent high-profile incidents involving alleged unruly behaviour by airline passengers Comfort Emmanson of Ibom Air and Fuji music legend Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, popularly known as Kwam 1.
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The Uyo–Lagos Ibom Air incident on Sunday triggered widespread public debate after viral videos showed Emmanson slapping and kicking airline and airport officials, including a female air hostess. According to reports, she had refused repeated instructions to switch off her phone before take-off. She was later dragged off the aircraft by security personnel and subsequently remanded at the Kirikiri Correctional Centre.
This occurred just days after Kwam 1 allegedly disrupted ValueJet’s morning service (Flight VK 201) to Lagos from Abuja on August 5 — an incident that also drew criticism online.
Appearing on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Tuesday, NCAA’s Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Mike Achimugu, said the cases were fundamentally different.
“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 petitioned the authorities instead. In the Ibom Air incident, maybe because their staff had been assaulted, the airline immediately activated its right, and it went to court,” he explained.
Achimugu said the NCAA was not directly involved in Emmanson’s case but had intervened in Kwam 1’s by issuing an advisory to the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) to place the musician on an indefinite flight ban pending investigations. He stressed that contrary to earlier reports, it was not a six-month suspension.
On Emmanson’s lifetime no-fly ban, he stated that airlines have the legal authority to impose such penalties to safeguard aircraft, passengers, and operations.
“We have a lot of flight disruptions in Nigeria because we lack capacity. While managing the limited aircraft we have, any risk to an aircraft is unacceptable. People spend huge sums leasing or buying aircraft do you want to destroy them?” he asked.
Achimugu added that the Ibom Air aircraft was scheduled for another flight, and failing to remove the passenger could have caused further operational disruption.
While assuring that the matter would be handled fairly, he warned that unruly passenger behaviour would not be tolerated and urged passengers to channel grievances through the NCAA.
In a related development, Achimugu took to X (formerly Twitter) to appeal for eyewitness accounts from passengers on the Ibom Air flight, providing his official email for submissions.
“Once verified that you were actually a passenger, we can discuss and understand other perspectives to this issue. Of course, this does not negate the exhibition of unruly behaviour and its ramifications, but it will ensure that every other person who was culpable is held accountable,” he wrote.
NCAA officers in Lagos have been tasked with conducting a fact-finding mission in collaboration with the police and other security agencies involved.
Achimugu concluded that the incident should serve as a “test for the system” and an opportunity to close operational loopholes in Nigeria’s aviation sector.
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