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BA Lies Grounded

Written by Respect Nigerians Coalition

Wednesday, 18 June 2008

BA LIES GROUNDED!

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, on May 1, 2008, British Airways issued a Statement supposedly in defence of the action it took on March 27, 2008 over what it considers to be the unacceptable conduct of its Nigerian customers aboard the BA75 flight from London Heathrow to Lagos. Ordinarily, making such a statement should have been accepted as a responsible approach to dealing with the issues at stake, except that the Statement is far from responsible. Worse still, it is a wicked insult on the integrity of its fare-paying Nigerian customers.

When people who run an airline of the calibre of British Airways make the peddling of lies against customers an instrument of corporate policy, they not only demean themselves and the otherwise great institution they represent, they also abuse the trust of society. It is therefore incumbent upon decent people everywhere to expose them for what they are – little-minded people invested in prejudice and suffocating folly.

The British Airways Statement began by saying they “regret the upset that the events onboard the BA75 to Lagos on 27th March have caused in Nigeria”, yet the very next statements that followed this indicate that the last thing they’re feeling is regret. They repeatedly state that “the decision to offload passengers was made in consultation with and on the advice of the UK police, and the sole aim of this decision was to ensure the safety of our passengers, aircraft and crew”. But if this indeed was the case, why were these same passengers thoughtlessly offloaded from the plane just because a few of them dared protest the unjust treatment meted out to one of them? Was this the best course of action in the circumstances, considering that BA precipitated the protest by inviting the police and making false statements to them about Mr Ayodeji Omotade who was subsequently manhandled, arrested, stopped from travelling for his brother’s wedding, banned, had his money confiscated and his luggage damaged and held up for over a week?

However, the worst of BA’s lies was the claim that their crew were subjected to physical assault. It is instructive that throughout the coverage of this affair in the British media, BA had ample opportunity to state this (if it was indeed the case), but never did. Of course, they never did, because it never happened! The police who attended the scene never received a report to this effect and never took any statement from any member of staff supposedly physically assaulted. The police arrested only one man, Mr Ayodeji Omotade and his arrest was not based on assault of anybody. He was arrested on the presumptive ground of affray, but up till now, over two months after, he’s yet to be charged for any offence. Yet, curiously, after over a month, BA suddenly realized that their staff had been physically assaulted and felt convinced enough about this to make it into a press statement in faraway Nigeria a day after the ultimatum given to them by our organization, Respect Nigerians Coalition (RNC) expired!

BA obviously sought to undercut our resolve to make the airline see the benefit of being a good corporate citizen by cooking up this terrible lie! How was it possible that in a place supposedly under “very serious” disturbance by passengers and which needed about twenty to twenty-five police officers to restore peace only one man was arrested? How was it possible that in an enclosure like a plane, with cameras, crew and security operatives watching, only one man was arrested and not for physical assault on anybody? We have challenged British Airways in a face to face meeting with its Executives (which included Mr Adrian Mcloy, the BA Country Representative) at their Lagos headquarters to name the member(s) of staff supposed to have been physically assaulted, but they couldn’t!

We also want to use this opportunity to correct certain erroneous impressions presently making the rounds in the public space. The first concerns the idea that British Airways had made an apology to Nigerians. This apparently emanated from the report in the Nigerian Daily Independent newspaper of Friday, 2 May, 2008 which carried the story of their press release titled “British Airways Apologises to Nigeria“. We are hereby attaching a copy of that press release to let you see that there was nothing indicating an apology anywhere in that Statement. The fact that they claim to express regret does not indicate they’ve apologized. As shown above, the Statement is an exercise in contradiction, obfuscation, subterfuge and outright fabrication. It is indeed an insult on the collective intelligence of Nigerians! However, we note that even in criticizing British Airways, the Nigerian Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Aondoakaa accepted this erroneous impression that the British Airways has apologized. They haven’t, and we need to clarify this.

Secondly, we note the intervention of the British High Commissioner, Mr Robert Dewar. The Nigerian Guardian newspaper of Wednesday, June 4, 2008 reported him as apologizing to the Federal Government of Nigeria over the incident in question when he paid a courtesy visit to the Nigerian Minister of Information and Communications, Mr John Odey. We find this a curious diversion, not only because we have no issue with the British government, but also because Mr Dewar only went on to restate the lies peddled by the airline in the guise of apology! At any rate, we do not think the issue concerns the British government. British Airways may be a British company, but it’s not owned by the British government. It is owned by shareholders, some of whom are Nigerians. We assume that all of these shareholders have a social conscience and would not want to be associated with a company steeped in discriminatory and racist practices - a company too vain to apologize for a wrong inflicted on its Nigerian customers.

Crucially, we want to use this opportunity to thank millions of Nigerians and well-wishers who have heeded our call to boycott British Airways goods and services since Thursday, May 15, 2008. They have made us very proud and strengthened our belief in the rightness of our action. The feelers we are getting right now are that British Airways is being hit by the action and they are running from pillar to post seeking ways to stop the bleeding. Of course, they know what to do based on our five demands; but they wouldn’t do so, because it is not in their nature to apologize to Nigerians, even though they’ve done so in the past when it concerns other people. We are deepening this campaign with more actions. At this point we can only ask people to continue supporting these actions once they’re announced. You can always get information on details of the campaign from www.respectnigerians.com and www.nigeriavillagesquare.com, two flagship websites that we employ for this campaign. Please, watch this space, because we are not giving up until BA does what is right by Nigerians and our common humanity.

Finally, we thank you, the Press. We thank you for your unstinting support throughout this campaign. Without you, Nigerians and well-wishers would not have been able to heed this call. Without you they wouldn’t have been able to understand the issues. Without you we wouldn’t be here. Without you British Airways would have ran roughshod over us with their well-oiled public relations machine, silencing the voice of a nation and all decent people worldwide. You know what this fight is about. You know it is not just about Ayodeji Omotade and the 135 passengers on that flight. You know it is about human dignity and national respect.

Please, keep the flag flying! We appreciate all you do. You make us proud, very proud!

Signed:

Tosin Awotesu
Ebi Bozimo
Ishola Taiwo

(For and on behalf of Respect Nigerians Coalition)

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Below is the full text of the British Airways Press Statement of Thursday, 1 May, 2008:

We regret the upset that the events onboard the BA75 to Lagos on 27th March have caused in Nigeria . We have made it clear that the decision to offload passengers was made in consultation with and on the advice of the UK police, and the sole aim of this decision was to ensure the safety of our passengers, aircraft and crew. Offloading passengers is not a decision that is taken lightly and is a rare occurrence. However the disturbance on board the BA75 service to Lagos on Thursday 27th March was a very serious incident which required the presence of 20 uniformed police officers to regain control of the situation. Given the level of disruption on board the plane as it was preparing to depart, it was not possible to pinpoint which passengers were the most involved. In addition our crew were subjected to both verbal abuse and physical assault which, in the confined space of an aircraft, can be a particularly serious issue. Hence the police decided, with the agreement of the Captain, that it would be unwise to let all the passengers travel on the aircraft as their behaviour could pose a safety risk. Of the 133 passengers offloaded following the disturbance 64 re-boarded the flight before take-off. Those offloaded were of various nationalities including British & American passengers. There was also a mix of nationalities among those who flew including Nigerian passengers. The arrest and detention of one of the passengers involved was a police decision and is not something that British Airways can comment on. The remaining offloaded passengers were offered overnight accommodation where appropriate and were rebooked on alternative flights. British Airways has a long and proud history of serving Nigeria and its people. For over 70 years the Airline has flown from the UK to Nigeria , connecting the country to the rest of the world. We are working with the Nigerian government to ensure we continue to provide our Nigerian passengers with the high standard of customer service British Airways is renowned for.

Robot Robot is offline
Villager


	# 1 BA LIES GROUNDED! ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot\| 18.06.2008 06:10

MrOneNaija MrOneNaija is offline
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	# 2 Guys, Thanks a lot for a job well done! The struggle must continue. It is crucial that we hit the deeply offensive BA where it matters most.The boycott should go on. Posted by MrOneNaija\| 18.06.2008 07:30

VOR VOR is offline
Villager


	# 3 BA obviously sought to undercut our resolve to make the airline see the benefit of being a good corporate citizen by cooking up this terrible lie! How was it possible that in a place supposedly under “very serious” disturbance by passengers and which needed about twenty to twenty-five police officers to restore peace only one man was arrested? How was it possible that in an enclosure like a plane, with cameras, crew and security operatives watching, only one man was arrested and not for physical assault on anybody? We have challenged British Airways in a face to face meeting with its Executives (which included Mr Adrian Mcloy, the BA Country Representative) at their Lagos headquarters to name the member(s) of staff supposed to have been physically assaulted, but they couldn’t! Still can't get my head round this bit. BA allege Nigerians on board verbally and physically assaulted their staff, that is why they had to remove the 135 passengers. Meanwhile, not 1 person was arrested by the police for the assault because BA crew could not identify the passengers that assaulted them! I find this difficult to believe, if anyone assaults me on a plane, not a crowded football stadium, how on earth will I not be able to identify the person. With this 'story' BA continues to insult the intelligence of Nigerians. Posted by VOR\| 18.06.2008 07:37

WaleAkin WaleAkin is offline
Villager


	# 4 =VOR;4295056916>Still can't get my head round this bit. BA allege Nigerians on board verbally and physically assaulted their staff, that is why they had to remove the 135 passengers. Meanwhile, not 1 person was arrested by the police for the assault because BA crew could not identify the passengers that assaulted them! I find this difficult to believe, if anyone assaults me on a plane, not a crowded football stadium, how on earth will I not be able to identify the person. With this 'story' BA continues to insult the intelligence of Nigerians. .............Even in a crowded, filled to capacity, overflowing Stadium say Stamford Bridge, there are CCTV cameras............Let BA flight 075 bring out its CCTV recordings on this particular day for all to see and make judgement! Lets start from there pls!! Atleast to confirm that Mr Ayo Omotade is a *BIG LIAR!!* Posted by WaleAkin\| 18.06.2008 07:44

Olamide Olamide is offline
Villager


	# 5 If BA deemed it fit to make any statement at all, even lies on the issue, it means the boycott is working and it is hurting them where it matters most, their balanced sheet. We should not allow them to trivialize or sweep it under the carpet with their cheap propaganda but maintain the momentum and pressure. I keep on informing my friends about the racist attitude of British Airways and always beg them to use other airlines to travel to the UK instead of BA. At least 5 cancelled their bookings with BA and flew to the UK with other airlines instead. If all of us could convince at least 5 friends, family members or colleagues to boycott BA effectively, they will have no other alternative but to move out of our country. In reality, I find it very difficult to believe that Nigeria Airways was sold for pennies by our former Emperor to his cronies and fronts and nothing has happened so far to him. Nigeria We hail thee! Posted by Olamide\| 18.06.2008 07:51

Ochi Dabari Ochi Dabari is offline
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	# 6 Well done guys. Very soon, they will realise that Nigerians are not all a forgetful lot. We may be forgiving but not forgetful. ochi (enjoying my time in Thailand, and not flying BA) Posted by Ochi Dabari\| 18.06.2008 09:27

hap hap is offline
JJC


	# 7 Good job. But, what's so new about this crap? Is a norm here in the States that they fabricate and lie about everything in other for them to justify there evil and ignorance. You all down there in Europe welcome to the new reality, or part of the so called globilization or world order. Posted by hap\| 18.06.2008 10:10

SILOJE SILOJE is offline
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	# 8 However the disturbance on board the BA75 service to Lagos on Thursday 27th March was a very serious incident which required the presence of 20 uniformed police officers to regain control of the situation. And it took BA almost three months to find the right words to describe such a 'serious disturbance'? Abeg gist me anoda gist. Posted by SILOJE\| 18.06.2008 11:10

Abraxas Abraxas is offline
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	# 9 Hi, folks! Before you forget: Al-Qaeda has announced unequivocally that it would re-enact the events of Tuesday, 11 September 2001 (a.k.a. 9-11) to commemorate the seventh (7th) anniversary of the ascension of their colleagues into Paradise as martyrs. Five (5) US and British airlines have been targeted for use in the operation. British *Airways* is one of them. *Those who have ears, let them hear.* Muchas gracias. Don Juan-Carlos ABRAXAS (III) Posted by Abraxas\| 18.06.2008 11:13

SILOJE SILOJE is offline
Villager


	# 10 =Robot;4295056883>However the disturbance on board the BA75 service to Lagos on Thursday 27th March was a very serious incident which required the presence of 20 uniformed police officers to regain control of the situation. And it took BA almost three months to find the right words to describe such a 'serious disturbance'? Abeg gist me anoda gist. Posted by SILOJE\| 18.06.2008 11:14

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 18 June 2008 )

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