NCAA’s Director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Mr Michael Achimugu, disclosed this to newsmen on Wednesday in Lagos.

Achimugu said that President Bola Tinubu had directed NCAA, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and relevant agencies, to ensure that the rights of Nigerian passengers were protected at all times.

He said the NCAA was currently mediating in the feud between the European carrier and aviation labour unions, which picketed the airline’s operations at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

According to him, the agency would not hesitate to roll out stiff penalties and sanctions to Turkish Airlines as Nigerian passengers, were still stranded at the airport, following its failure to airlift them to Istanbul.

Achimugu said the federal government and its agencies would spare no effort to call to order any airline that violated the rights of Nigerian passengers.

According to him, the Director-General of NCAA, Capt. Chris Najomo, had in a virtual meeting on Tuesday from the United Kingdom initiated reconciliatory  moves between the Country Manager of Turkish Airlines and the unions.

He, however, said the representative of the airline exhibited some traits of impudence, which the regulator deemed amounted to lack of regard for the system.

Arising from the infraction, Achimugu said the federal government would not hesitate to look deep into the impasse with the possibility of extracting the right punishment if the carrier was found culpable.

The federal government, he said, would take every step to ensure the rights of Nigerian passengers were not trampled on by any carrier, including foreign airlines, in taking the right steps to address any infractions on their conditions of operations into the country.

He confirmed that over 300 passengers had been trapped in the imbroglio involving the Turkish Airlines, and aviation unions, as the carrier had cancelled flights out of and into Nigeria until Thursday.

Achimugu said that though the carrier claimed to have communicated with passengers through electronic mail on the on-going hitch concerning its operations into and out of the country, some passengers still turned up at the Lagos Airport.

He said: “The NCAA is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the inability of Turkish Airlines to operate flights out of Lagos Airport, due to the picketing of its operations by aviation unions.

“We will ensure that the rights of Nigerian passengers are not violated.

“President Bola Tinubu has directed the NCAA, FAAN and relevant agencies to ensure that the rights of Nigerian passengers are protected.

“Currently, the NCAA is engaging officials of Turkish Airlines, but we have observed some degree of insolence of the Country Manager, who engaged our D-G in a shouting match, he was even banging the table.

“This behaviour to the NCAA is unacceptable. At the end of our findings, if the airline is found culpable, we will invoke the relevant parts of our regulation Part 17,  to mete out the right punishment,” he said.

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Achimugu on Wednesday evening visited the stranded passengers at the new terminal of the international airport, where he conveyed the message of the D-G to them, saying that the authority would not rest until they were transported to their various destinations.

One of the stranded passenger, Obiekwe Ngozichukwu, a Guttenberg, Sweden resident, said he was afraid of losing his job as a top official of one of the hotels in that country, because the company had been calling him to resume work.

He said he visited Nigeria for his mother’s burial, but could not go back because of the cancellation of his flight, and had been sleeping on the floor at the airport for two days.

“We don’t know when we are leaving here, I appeal to the authorities to intervene and save us from this  experience.”

Another passenger, a Germany based construction worker, Charles Ifeanyi, also appealed to the federal government to intervene, to save the situation, lamenting that the authorities must not allow Nigerians to be maltreated anywhere in the world anyhow.

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, had began the picketing of Turkish Airlines in Lagos.

The picketing is to ensure that the carrier reinstates staffers, who were dismissed, forced to abandon duty or forced to resign under duress, including those victimised for their union membership in 2020.

Source: NAN

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Sirika made the declaration on Saturday in Abuja in a statement signed by Mr James Odaudu, the director of public affairs in the ministry.

The minister further warned other airline operators to take a cue from the recent Turkish airlines experience.

“Following the threat by the nation’s aviation regulators to ban its operations in Nigeria, Turkish Airlines last night flew into Abuja with a bigger aircraft A330 as against the usual smaller B737.

“Officials of the airline, alarmed by the prospect of losing their Nigerian market, had rushed into a meeting with the Nigerian authorities to pledge total commitment,” he said.

The minister also noted that the foreign airline had tried to comply with the conditions given to it in order to continue its operations in Nigeria.

According to him, Turkish airlines had been notorious for the shabby treatment of Nigerian travellers over time, especially when they had to arrive their destinations without their checked-in luggage.

He added that such behaviour by the airline had always given rise to security issues at the airports with protests by affected passengers.

The minister, however, said the airline had now shown commitment to improve its treatment of Nigerian travellers by operating into the nation’s capital with a bigger and more comfortable aircraft.

He noted that the situation did not need to arise in the first place with the airline waiting for the strong-arm handling before doing the right thing.

Sirika promised Nigerians better flying experiences as the nation’s aviation industry, according to him, was set to undergo major developments in the coming years with the implementation of the stakeholder-developed roadmap.

Source: NAN

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