Drama as airline leaves Rep members stranded in Kano Airport
By Matthew Eloyi
It was a dramatic moment on Wednesday as some members of the House of Representatives were left stranded at the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano by an airline while on a committee assignment.
The stranded lawmakers included the spokesperson of the House, Ben Kalu (APC, Abia), Rotimi Agunsoye (APC, Lagos), Henry Achibong (PDP, Akwa-Ibom) and others.
The lawmakers were to board Azman Airline for an official assignment with the Committee on Petroleum Upstream and Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) but waited for hours unattended for a flight that was earlier scheduled to take off at 12:30 pm thereafter shifted to 2:30 pm, 6 pm, 9:45 pm and finally to 12:15 a.m.
Mr Kalu, the House spokesperson was left fuming while speaking with journalists at the airport.
In his words, “It is important the people we represent know where we are and the National Assembly knows we are still stranded here. And as we speak to you, nobody is at the counter to address us, not even the manager.
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“In the hall, a lot of Nigerians are left stranded. There are other Nigerians who are stranded and we are witnessing this firsthand and we are feeling it. Some of the citizens are abandoned here.
“We are raising this call for common Nigerians. Sometimes, when citizens bring their complaints before us, it feels as if they fabricated it but this one we are involved and we are seeing this for ourselves.”
Kalu noted that the lawmakers will raise the matter with the Ministry of Aviation and Consumer Protection Council.
“We don’t know when we are leaving here and we have shown interest to find out from the Ministry of Aviation and Consumer Protection Council what is happening to the Aviation sector as soon as we return,” he said.