By Emman Ovuakporie
Members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday got a raw deal as they were left stranded at the Kano International Airport by Azman Airline for several hours.
TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) reports the House members boarded Azman Airline for an official engagement with House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) and Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and waited for hours unattended to for a flight that was scheduled to take off at 12:30pm but was shifted to 2:30pm and then to 6pm and was moved to 9:45am and again moved to 12:15pm.
As at the time of filing this report, no official of the airline was on ground to address passengers.
Hon. Benjamin Kalu, spokesman to the House who spoke to journalists on the shoddy treatment expressed worry that airline operators especially Azman airline have resolved to treat Nigerians without respect which is against the consumer protection law of the country where if a passenger is delayed for two hours, the operators should reach out to their passengers.
He said: “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.”
Kalu who spoke on behalf of the lawmakers expressed concern that this is what the ordinary Nigerians pass through on daily basis while travelling.
He said “We just came out to see the manager and other members are still inside.”
Another passenger Abdullahi Alhassan Bashir and his wife were also captured waiting endlessly without being attended to.
Other lawmakers who identified themselves include: Hon. Rotimi Agunsoye, Hon. Henry Archibong, Hon. Gboluga Tinboju, among others
He said “In the hall alot of Nigerians were left stranded, there are other Nigerians who are stranded and we are witnessing this firsthand and we are feeling it. Some of the citizens were abandoned here.
“We are raising this call for common Nigerians, sometimes when citizens bring their complaint it appears as if they fabricated it.
“But this one we are involved and we are seeing this for ourselves,” the House spokesman noted.
“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,” Kalu declared