By Linus Aleke, Abuja
Human Rights Activist, Barrister Chuks Ezewuzie, has threatened to take legal action against Ibom Air, for allegedly violating his rights.
Ezewuzie, who is also the Chairman, Anambra State Disability Rights Commission, made this disclosure on Thursday, during a press conference in Abuja.
He also called on Minister of Aviation, Mr. Festus Keyamo SAN, to impress it on the regulatory agencies in the sector to call domestic airlines to order, with particular reference to Ibom Air.
According to him, “I am briefing my lawyers, seeing that nothing has come out of my patients for three years. Nothing has at least, none that I know, has come out of the investigation by House of Reps Committee on Disability on the ill treatment of persons with disability by some domestic airlines. May be something happened but I am not aware. I have not been responded to and my inquires has not received any attention as to whether there has been any action, necessitating a change of mind or policy by some of these airlines”.
Narrating his ordeal in the hands of officials of Ibom Air, the rights activists, said: “Mine was just an example; exactly three years now, on May First 2021, I was denied boarding on Ibom Air on my way returning to Enugu after a United Nations conference in Abuja. It was a conference organized by UNESCO to which I was invited and I could not return to Enugu on Ibom Air that brought me to Abuja. For no other reason, order than the fact that I was a person with disability, I am blind. The Ibom Air supervisor at the Abuja International airport said it was the policy of the Ibom Air, not to allow persons with disability to travel unaccompanied, just like a minor”.
He further explained that he was a frequent air traveller, stressing that he had travelled with different airlines, both domestic and international.
He however, noted that it was so strange that a man like him who had passed through over 50 airports around the world and have travelled to about 21 countries, will be denied access to air travel in Nigeria.
“I was not allowed to travel from Abuja to Enugu, and it was not only that I was not allowed to board despite been in the airport two hours before my time, I was left there abandoned without provision and without refund of the fully paid flight ticket till today. No Kobo has been refunded to me, no provision was made while I sat there helpless, abandoned, without assistance. Of course I raised money and flew another airline to Enugu. It is not all the airlines that is guilty of this malfeasance, air peace, owned by my very good friend and class mate at the Nigerian law school, Alien Onyema, has been doing well for this country. I have continued to travel and will still travel,” he said.
He tasked domestic airlines to not only obey national legislations but also adhere to international legal instruments.
According to him, “In 2019, IATA, in a general assembly passed a resolution that the need of persons with disability ought to be taken into consideration in air travels and that they need to be assisted when travelling. The federal laws prohibits discrimination against persons with disability. The constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria give freedom of movement to everyone including persons with disability but for the airline, some of them, it appears those rights can only be enjoyed if you are not a person with disability. I want to use this opportunity to call on the minister of aviation Mr. Festus Keyamo SAN, who is doing a fantastic job in the aviation industry. I call on him to make the Nigeria Airline regulators to do their job to reign in on the domestic airlines to ensure that they implement the rule of of IATA and that they abide by the law of the land in ensuring that persons with disability have equal access to air travel”.
