A young Nigerian medical doctor, Adedapo Adeosun, was on February 1, 2022, denied boarding on a Qatar Airways flight heading for Oslo, Norway, for committing no offence.
The 30-year-old, who arrived at the Murtala
Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, in company with his mother,
Caroline, from Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, was looking forward to reaching Norway
early for a medical examination before heading to London, United Kingdom, for
another professional test when things took a different turn.
Despite having an electronic boarding pass
already, Adeosun and other passengers were subjected to screening at the
airline's counter.
A few minutes into that process, an
official of Qatar Airways stopped the screening and tried to dismiss all
persons waiting to be attended to without offering any reasonable explanation.
This left the entire place in chaos as
confused and disappointed passengers lamented the situation.
Desperate to find out what had gone wrong
and to plead with Qatar Airways staff to allow her son to board the flight
since he had already done electronic clearance, Caroline approached an official
named Ada for help.
Immediately she touched the woman’s arm to
get her attention, Ada, according to Caroline, landed a 'heavy' slap on her
face without any provocation.
Enraged at the assault on his mother, the
30-year-old doctor quickly brought out his mobile phone to record the incident.
This further infuriated officials of the
airline, who soon turned their anger on Adeosun.
The young medical doctor was attacked by
three hefty officials, who tried to forcibly collect his mobile phone and
delete the recorded videos of the assault on his mother.
Following the entire incident, Adeosun was
denied boarding on his flight to Norway that night, leaving him frustrated. He
had to battle more challenges in the days that followed.
Despite lodging an official complaint with
airport authorities over the assault on the medical doctor and his mother,
justice is yet to be served on the matter.
"The airline officials, especially the
ones screening passengers suddenly stopped passengers on that flight from being
attended to despite the fact that there were still some hours before departure
time," a visibly angry Caroline said as she shared her frustration with
SaharaReporters on Tuesday.
"My son studies in Norway, he only
came to Nigeria as a result of Coronavirus outbreak, so he was shocked at the
way airport officials discarded some of the passengers at the checking point.
"I, first of all, approached one Mr
Oke to tell him that my son had an electronic boarding pass already and that
there was no need for physical checking but the man and his colleagues all kept
mute.
"I approached one of the female
officials named Ada to see if she could show some understanding and allow my
son to board the aircraft. Instead of speaking to me, the woman turned around
and slapped me on my face. Her colleagues watched on without interfering in the
situation.
"Security officials came around and
took us to Tango office (security) where their boss addressed us. He thereafter
instructed Mr Oke to allow my son to board the flight.
"But immediately he left that office,
Mr Oke went straight to stop my son from boarding the flight, asking him to
delete the videos he had earlier recorded of the assault on me.
"Oke and three other men manhandled my
son and injured him on one of his fingers while trying to collect his phone to
delete the video recording.
"We rebooked the flight two other
times but Qatar Airways didn't allow him to board, insisting that I must write
a letter of apology to the airport official who assaulted me before he would be
allowed on the flight. I reported the matter to all relevant offices at the
airport but nothing came out of it.
"My husband had to collect a loan from
a cooperative to buy another ticket with a different airline for my son to
eventually fly to Norway.
"The delay has cost him the
professional exams in Norway and London where he had already paid for hotel
accommodation.
"All the money we lost to the three
flights booked with Qatar Airways plus transportation from Ijebu-Ode to Lagos
and back for more than five days the crisis lasted, I don't know how the
airport and airline officials are going to pay for this because it runs into
millions of naira.
"The refund of the money of the ticket
is on one side, the refund of the money of all he had paid for abroad is
another.
"There is no greater injustice and
violation of human rights than the way my son and I were treated in this
instance," she added.
An email sent to Qatar Airways by
SaharaReporters over the issue had yet to be responded to as of the time of
this report.
The spokesperson for the Nigerian Civil
Aviation Authority, Sam Adurogboye, asked SaharaReporters to send him a text
message detailing its enquiries but he had yet to reply to the message as of
the time of filing this report.
When contacted on the matter, the Consumer
Protection Department of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, the regulatory
body for air transportation in Nigeria, had yet to give an official response,
however, a staff member of the agency told our correspondent that steps will be
taken to investigate the incident.
"I can't speak for the NCAA but if the
matter has been reported to the appropriate unit, I am very sure that it will
be investigated for the sake of Justice," the official said.
It is not the first time that airport or
airline officials in Nigeria will be harassing, assaulting, extorting and
denying passengers from boarding their flights – the latest adds to a long list
of similar events.
For instance, SaharaReporters on Monday
reported how a corrupt syndicate made up of Nigerian immigration officials and
some airport employees in Ethiopia had been conniving to extort $50 from
passengers, especially first-time travellers going to Europe, North America,
Asia and some other parts of the world.
Travellers, who refuse to give this amount
as a handout are often marked for cruel treatment upon arrival in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia's capital while transiting to their destination.
Many in this category are held at the
airport for days before eventually being returned to Nigeria.
Despite calls by immigration and aviation
authorities to tackle this menace by crushing the various cartels frustrating
travellers at various Nigerian airports, the situation persists, leaving
passengers to count their losses
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