The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has cautioned Air Peace against using various tactics to ward off the ongoing inquiry into activities of the airline with regard to exploitative ticket pricing.

FCCPC in a statement issued on Sunday by Director of Corporate Affairs, Mr.Ondaje Ijagwu, said the airline was employing series of ploys calculated to obfuscate the issues and distract the Commission from the ongoing inquiry into alleged exploitative ticket pricing among other potential violations of consumers’ rights.

Last Thursday, the Commission had to refute a report syndicated in a section of the media, which grossly misrepresented the proceedings at a meeting between its officials and Air Peace team earlier on December 3 at the Commission’s Abuja headquarters, as a followup to an avalanche of petitions received from passengers in recent times.

“Although Section 33 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA) 2018 grants the Commission discretionary power to conduct inquiries in public or in camera, the FCCPC chose to conduct the December 3 session in camera as a gesture of good faith to preserve the confidentiality.

“But no sooner had the session ended than leaks appeared in the media attributing unfounded but prejudicial statements to the Commission’s officials, categorically declaring that “Air Peace was not under investigation” and copiously quoted the Air Peace’s Chairman, Mr. Allen Onyema, engaging in ostentation of self-adulation.

“Curiously, the same media leaks omitted a boastful statement by Mr. Onyema at the same December 3 engagement that he could decide to shut down the airline, ostensibly to show he was doing the nation a favour by flying,” the statement added.

In the December 5 statement, the Commission restated that the inquiry was still ongoing, urging the public to be wary of manufactured news, since the report was not disseminated on the Commission’s official communication platforms.

“In a dramatic turn of events on Friday, Air Peace addressed a press conference in Lagos where it made several outlandish claims and innuendos obviously intended to whip up sentiments but conveniently avoided addressing the real issues.

“For instance, in asserting that only the aviation regulatory agency could inquire into its affairs, Air Peace only betrays a terribly poor understanding of both the legal and moral pillars of its operating environment. Passengers are consumers of its services.

Their rights are inalienable and guaranteed under the FCCPA. It is the basis of FCCPC’s intervention,” said FCCP.” “As stipulated in Section 17(e) of the FCCPA 2018, the FCCPC is mandated to carry out inquiries considered necessary or desirable in connection with any matter falling within the purview of the Act.