While the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keya-mo, has ordered aviation agencies to investigate the incident involving Air Peace and former Edo State Governor, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, at the Murtala Muhammed Airport domestic terminal on Wednesday, Airline op-erators of Nigeria (AON), the umbrella body for some airlines in Nigeria and Os-hiomhole have continued to engage in brickbats, with justifying their positions or who erred or where the fault lies. Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, who spoke at a press con-ference, said that the Air Peace versus Oshiomhole saga has become a huge topic, just as he exonerated Air Peace from the incident. He said, “I know that this is a burning topic in Nigeria right now. It is really quite unfortunate. AON has had enough distractions and headache in order to offer service to Nigerians. What happened two days ago to a high profile Nigerian is just one other distraction. I have taken interest in all the press statements by the dis-tinguished senator and Air Peace. AON also had the full brief of Air Peace on the incident and as a matter of fact, as much as we appre-ciate and understand that every passenger has a right, your right is only limited to what is allowed by the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO)”.

The AON scribe, who is also the Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, said, “No disappointment at all from any airline or resort to self-help. It is not acceptable. It is a respected airline, no matter what you say about it. They carry 30 to 40% of all the domestic passengers. They deserve respect. It is somebody’s investment and starts now, demonising the airline. I can see some malice in it. It is way too far and, as op-erators, we have looked at those things and we do not see any logic in it. “We have seen several airlines that say Air Peace is delayed. Air Peace is now saying that we don’t want to delay. For them to leave passengers behind, they are ready to lose rev-enue than for them to be on time. I think that we should be clapping for Air Peace rather than de-monizing it. How would you now satisfy the pas-senger or what else can we do to be of service to Nigerians?”

He said he has direct-ed the aviation agencies to exercise restraint in jump-ing to conclusions in line with the time-honoured legal principle of ‘hear all sides’ before reaching judgment.