SaharaReporters had on Tuesday reported how Adedapo Adeosun, a young Nigerian medical doctor, was denied boarding a flight for committing no offence.
Qatar Airways on Thursday confirmed that a female official assaulted the mother of a passenger at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, during screening for a flight bound for Oslo, Norway, on February 2, 2022.
SaharaReporters had on Tuesday reported how Adedapo Adeosun, a young Nigerian medical doctor, was denied boarding a flight for committing no offence.
The 30-year-old, who arrived at the Lagos airport with his mother, Caroline, from Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, was looking forward to arriving in Norway early for a medical examination before continuing to London, United Kingdom, for another professional examination when events took a different turn.
Although he and other passengers already had an electronic boarding permit, they were subjected to screening at the airline’s counter and eventually denied boarding.
Caroline approached an employee named Ada for assistance in determining what went wrong and pleaded with Qatar Airways workers to allow her son to boarding the plane because he had already completed electronic screening.
Ada, according to Caroline, slapped her across the face without provocation as soon as she touched her arm to get her attention.
Enraged by his mother’s assault, the 30-year-old doctor swiftly pulled out his phone to video the incident.
This further enraged airline officials, who quickly directed their wrath upon Adeosun.
Things escalated from that point with Adeosun prevented from boarding the flight.
All efforts to seek justice by the medical doctor and his mother has yet to yield any positive outcome.
Reacting to the incident in a statement on Thursday, Ian Bradley, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Qatar Airways denied that the female official, who assaulted Caroline was their staff member.
The airline said, "The individual involved is not a Qatar Airways employee and is obviously not in a Qatar Airways uniform.
“We regret to learn that there was an incident between a Qatar Airways passenger and an employee of a contracted company at Lagos airport on 2 February. The passenger arrived at the airport with a family after check-in had closed, and the group then proceeded to verbally and physically assault a number of individuals at the airport, one of the employees of the contracted company subsequently reacted to a physical assault. At no time were any Qatar Airways employees involved and the matter is being further investigated as the airline does not condone violence of any kind.”