NCAA clarifies, “in the KWAM 1 case … the airline [ValueJet] did not sue or take the passenger to court, the NCAA … does not have prosecutorial powers”
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
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“The airline [ValueJet] has exercised its right to sue the unruly passenger to court. So long as that case is in court, the NCAA has no role to play in it. Okay.
“But in the KWAM 1 case, since the airline did not sue or take the passenger to court, the NCAA, which also does not have prosecutorial powers, decided to do the right thing by criminally referring the case to the Attorney General and Inspector General of Police.
“So if ValueJet had arrested and taken KWAM 1 to court that day, the NCAA would not have been involved to the extent that it became involved.
“Because they didn’t do that, the NCAA did what it had to do. In this case, the airline, since the incident happened, immediately arrested the lady and sued her in court. So that’s not the NCAA’s fault.
“We did not sue Kwam 1; we did not sue this lady” – NCAA.
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It was Ibom Air that “arrested and charged to court” its passenger, Comfort Emmanson, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has explained amid accusation of double standards in dealing with the case of Wasiu Ayinde, known as K1 de Ultimate and KWAM1, who obstructed a ValueJet aircraft and assaulted one of the pilots, Oluranti Ogoyi, without serious consequences for him so far.
The NCAA has banned KWAM 1 from travelling on any local or international airline in Nigeria for six months, but without known financial implication or pending prosecution.
On the other hand, the licences of both ValueJet pilot and co-pilot have been suspended by the NCAA, which has huge financial and professional consequences.
Fuji musician KWAM 1 is Bola Tinubu’s praise-singer and is publicly known to be close to the President, whose influence is reportedly being directedly or indirectly wielded to protect his boy from facing prosecution for a crime that is supposed to land him in jail for two years.
Both cases are offshoots of the one last month in which Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo) was caught on camera disrupting the airport operations of Air Peace over a delayed flight, without him facing consequences for his bad behaviour so far.
KWAM 1 was caught on tape committing his own offences last week, he later issued a public apology for them, and it is reported that people are begging for him to be forgiven – that is, not to be prosecuted.
In contrast, Emmanson’s “unruly behaviour” on Sunday led to her “immediate arrest” and being charged to court later by the airline, and remanded in custody, as confirmed by NCAA spokesperson Michael Achimugu.
“There’s nothing to put together here. The Ibom Air passenger was arrested and charged to court by the airline,” Achimugu told DAILY POST.
“The airline [ValueJet] has exercised its right to sue the unruly passenger to court. So long as that case is in court, the NCAA has no role to play in it. Okay.
“But in the KWAM 1 case, since the airline did not sue or take the passenger to court, the NCAA, which also does not have prosecutorial powers, decided to do the right thing by criminally referring the case to the Attorney General and Inspector General of Police.
“So if ValueJet had arrested and taken KWAM 1 to court that day, the NCAA would not have been involved to the extent that it became involved.
“Because they didn’t do that, the NCAA did what it had to do. In this case, the airline, since the incident happened, immediately arrested the lady and sued her to court. So that’s not the NCAA’s fault.
“We did not sue Kwam 1; we did not sue this lady.”
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