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Flight delay: We won’t let case against Azman slide, Reps vow

The Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Benjamin Kalu, has narrated how members of the National Assembly were left stranded at the Aminu Kano International Airport for about 13 hours.

Kalu, while condemning Azman Airline for allegedly abandoning passengers while the delay lasted, said the lawmakers had to buy food for other travellers who were stranded at the airport.

The lawmakers and other passengers were stranded at the airport on Wednesday and allegedly without officials of the domestic airline attending to them.

The members of the House were said to have embarked on an official assignment as members of the Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream).

It was learnt that the airline shifted their return flight to Abuja from 12:30pm to 2:30pm, then to 6pm, then to 9:45pm and later to 12:15am (on Thursday).

The passengers were said not to have been airlifted until 1am and eventually landed in Abuja at 2:11am.

The House’ spokesman, who briefed journalists in Abuja on Friday, vowed the lawmakers would fight for the right of Nigerians.

He said, “Over the years, it appears as if it has become a norm for Nigerians to be abandoned. Over the years, what is not supposed to be acceptable to us as a people – I am not talking of members of parliament because we were first people of Nigeria before we became members of the parliament, and when we leave here we will go back to become the ordinary people of Nigeria.

“We felt something was wrong with that and we felt it was high time we amplified not just our voices but the voices of the downtrodden Nigerians who, most of the time, accept everything in pain but we say Nigerians are patient and we are a happy people. We just accept anything that is thrown at us and it ought not to be so.”

He added, “We were coming from a national assignment and going to another National Assembly function, which we missed. We missed all the roles that were supposed to play for Nigerian people because we were kept – almost hostage – for 13 hours. So, if we don’t amplify the voice of Nigerian people now that we have experienced it, not that they came to write petition to us but we were there and we saw it happen.”

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