Twenty-seven persons have been blacklisted by Arik Air from flying
with the airline on any of its routes, both domestic and international.
Reasons given for the blacklisting range from being declared wanted
by security agencies, death threat, act of terrorism, fraudulent
practices to unruly behaviour for declaring them persona-non grata on all its flights.
Of particular interest is the social critic and blogger, Japhet
Omojuwa, whose name appears on the list.
Japheth Omojuwa’s iPad got
missing on an Arik Air flight. When all efforts to recover it proved
furtile, he took to the social media platform, Twitter, to vent his
frustration. As at now, the tablet has not been recovered and the
dispossessed man, Japheth has been banned from flying with the airline.
Even George Uriesi, managing director, Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria (FAAN), was among those blacklisted. The Arik list which was
updated on September 24, 2012, gave the reason for including Uriesi as
‘management decision’.
Moulim Boubacai, Moussa Baba and Al-Laranma Ibrahim (Somalian), who
are on the list, were allegedly declared “terrorists by security
agencies that they are posing threat against airlines in Nigeria”.
Warsame Ahmed Abdukardir was declared persona non-grata by UK
authorities. Davies-Fasan Adesola; Ejilasis Kudirat Abike; Musa Azeez
Arisekola, Adesugba Sijuade Adekoya and Oluseye Yakubu Idowu were all
allegedly reported by the ‘UKBA’.
Others on the list are Nwachukwu Austin, Orji Ikechukwu, Uzoh Himman,
Ikukoyi Olufemi, Grace Goubadia, Adesanya David, Olomiwe Peter Chukwu,
Bakare Lanre, Lawal Lateef, Obayomi Osoba, Obiriki James, Guanah Raymos
and Victor Ogbonda-Elo.