Passengers duly informed of movement restriction, say Airliners

Some domestic airline operators have said that all their passengers were duly informed of the restriction of movement imposed on Saturday for the conduct of local government elections in Lagos State. Some of the airline operators, who spoke with the correspondent, said text messages and emails were sent to all passengers on the rescheduling of flights due to the movement restriction order for the election.

Supreme recalls that Lagos State Government had announced restriction of movement across the state between 8a.m. and 3p.m. on Saturday to enable a hitch-free conduct of elections into positions of Chairmen and Councillors in all the state’s 57 LGAs and LCDAs. Mr Kingsley Ezenwa, Manager, Dana Air, said passengers were called individually and also sent mails to reschedule their flights. Ezenwa said some of the stranded passengers might be those who refused to access their mail.” We ensure all flights are rescheduled to afternoon while other passengers board early morning before the election commenced,” Ezenwa said.

Mr Efe Osifo-whiskey, Air Peace Spokesman, said most passengers who claimed to have not seen mail or text messages were booked by agents and third parties. Osifo-whiskey said that the passengers’ numbers were not used as contacts which is also a serious challenge. He added that Air Peace placed advertorial on the rescheduled flights aside from the text messages and mail sent out.

According to him, some flights were cancelled due to the election while others were rescheduled. “Air Peace does not toy with its passengers. We valued our passengers and we always carry them along. Mr Ola Olabanji, the Media Manager of Arik Air, said that Arik Air passengers were aware of the flights reschedule and due notices were sent out to all booked passengers.

Olabanji said that the stranded passengers were not Arik Air passengers, adding that calls, text messages and mails were sent out to all passengers. However, the Division Police Officer in charge of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, SP Joseph Alabi, said that the airport environment was calm and “no cause for alarm.”