OUTRAGEOUS! BRITISH AIRWAYS BOOTS 136 NIGERIAN PASSENGERS OFF FLIGHT. By Chinyere Obinna O.

About 136 Nigerian passengers were thrown off a British Airways flight on March 27, 2008, igniting outrage amongst the Nigerian community in London. The mass removal of passengers was part of a chain reaction that started when crew members and police converged on a man, who was being forcibly ejected from the country. The deportee, whose identity was not released, was being restrained by officers inside the flight, which was preparing to take off at about 12:30PM, British time. According to passenger report, the man was in a highly agitated state, and continued to scream, “I go die,” in Pidgin English, indicating that he was afraid for his life. Mr. Ayodeji Omotade, 39, an IT Consultant from Chatham, Kent, was also aboard the flight. Mr. Omotade was traveling to Nigeria for his brother’s wedding, and according to Mr. Omotade, when the passenger’s screams did not abate, he became highly concerned for the man's safety and addressed the officers, asking them not to kill him. This led to the arrest of Mr. Omotade, who was handcuffed and detained for over 8 hours by the British Police. When the other passengers expressed their indignation at this turn of events, about 20 police officers were summoned into the aircraft and the Captain took the extraordinary measure of booting the 135 passengers off the flight. While the 135 remaining passengers were later booked onto other departing flights,
British Airways banned Mr. Omotade from their flights for life. When he was later released on bail, he attempted to rebook his flight to Lagos, but was given the run-around with the end result that he missed his brother’s wedding. Additionally, his two luggage pieces mysteriously disappeared and were not located until about two weeks later. By this time it was too late since the wedding had already taken place and the luggage contained various articles, including the wedding suits that were intended to be worn by the wedding party. The authority also seized Mr. Omotade's cash, totaling 1,617.000 British Pounds Sterling. Part of the money was from his cousin, a doctor in England, who had given the cash to Mr. Omotade to deliver to his mother in Nigeria. The British authority implied that the money could have been used to fund crime, and demanded that Mr. Omotade produce his bank statements going back twelve months and his pay stubs going back six months, in order to prove that he actually earned the money and also withdrew the money from his bank account. They also demanded that Mr. Omotade's cousin also produce his bank statements going back twelve months and his pay stubs going back six months. This incidence has sparked outrage from the Nigerian community, who feel that the treatment borders on racism. A Nigerian website, the Nigerian Village Square has set up a petition against the British Airways company, inviting people to let BA know how they feel about the situation.
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Regards. Chinyere