The case between the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Ayo Omotade finally came to an end yesterday. The Charge against Mr. Omotade was;
Threatening /abusive/insulting/disorderly behaviour towards a member of the crew of the aircraft “CONTRARY TO ARTICLES 78(B) AND 148(5) OF, AND PART A OF SCHEDULE 14 TO THE AIR NAVIGATION ORDER 2005 MADE UNDER SECTION 60 AND 61 OF THE CIVIL AVIATION ACT 1982”.
I had hoped to get a copy of the judgement delivered to post on here however the court informed us the judgement will not be available till later.
Before I narrate what happened at the court on both days of the hearing I’ll give a brief summary of events leading up to the judgement yesterday.
Most are aware of the case. Ayo Omotade was a passenger on BA flight 075 to Lagos Nigeria on Thursday 27th March 2008. Ayo boarded the flight at 12.50pm, the flight was scheduled to depart Heathrow at 1.20pm. Onboard the aircraft was a deportee, Augustine Eme, he was shackled and apparently placed on the floor. The deportee was making so much noise passengers at the rear of the plane complained to cabin crew. When the deportee began shouting “I go die o” Ayo turned to the officers and said “please don’t kill him”. After a while, the deportee was taken off the plane, the cabin crew asked passengers at the rear of the plane if they were ok, they responded that they were fine since the source of their concern had been taken off the plane. A couple of minutes later, policemen boarded the plane to remove Mr. Omotade; despite pleas by Mr. Omotade and pleas and protests from other passengers, Mr. Omotade was removed from the plane, slammed unto the wall of the gangway and asked to sit down on the floor.
There was pandemonium onboard due to the fact that Mr. Omotade had been removed, more officers boarded the plane and cleared the plane at about 2pm. In the meantime, Mr. Omotade was placed in a police van at 2pm formally charged at 3.30pm and left unattended in the van for hours before being transported to the station. At the station, he was charged again and his money (£1,600) was taken from him on the allegation that it is “proceeds of crime”.
Whilst Mr. Omotade was holed up in the van, passengers on BA075 were left unattended in the terminal, no explanation was given for the order to disembark. People who dared ask were told to go back and sit down and they will be informed when the flight will depart. Later on; about 6.15pm London time (7.15pm Nigerian time) BA075 departed London Heathrow for Lagos Nigeria. On board the flight were first and business class passengers, some economy passengers, the deportee and crew. The two white passengers in Economy were upgraded to Business Class. The flight arrived Nigeria at 1.30am.
Mr. Omotade discharged on bail found his way to Heathrow airport (all his money had been taken at the station) went to the BA flight desk to get another flight to Nigeria – The purpose of Mr. Omotade’s trip was to attend his brother’s wedding on the 28th & 29th March, he had all the items to be used for the wedding in his luggage; suit, rings, outfit for groomsmen etc. - at the desk, he was informed that he had been banned for life on BA. He called his wife and she said there was a flight on KLM and Virgin he could catch the following morning. Mr. Omotade made his way back to the BA desk to enquire about his luggage, he was told they couldn’t find them. Frustrated Mr. Omotade returned home unable to travel and missing the wedding. A week later, Mr. Omotade was reunited with his damaged bags with no explanation or apology from BA.
On 10th April 2008 Mr. Omotade narrated his story on the Nigerian Village Square and received massive support from Nigerians, though there were a few who thought he could have handled the situation better however majority applauded the fact Mr. Omotade stood up for a fellow Nigerian. There were suggestions from villagers on how to proceed. It was agreed we petition British Airways.
A petition demanding amongst other things an apology to Mr. Omotade and the 136 passengers onboard flight BA075 and compensation for these passengers was signed by over 5,000 people all over the world. Protest e-mails, letters and phone calls were made to BA offices asking for an explanation and/or apology, BA ignored all requests.
In April President Yar’Adua asked for an investigation into the matter, the NCAA were mandated to carry out the investigation and provide a report to the Presidecy – to date we have not been told the outcome of the investigation.
24th April 2008 Foreign Minister Ojo Maduewke informs the British High Commissioner such maltreatment against Nigerians will not be tolerated by the Federal Government.
May 1st 2008 British Airways issues a statement with no apology - Nigerians say not good enough!
On 15th May 2008 a world wide boycott of British Airways was called by the group co-ordinating the protest Respect Nigerians Coalition (an NVS project) At the Lagos office of BA, members of RNC who had gone to deliver a letter informing BA that the boycott had commenced were stunned to find the area crawling with armed policemen. We later found out that officials at BA had contacted the police and informed them that they were under siege, their property was being damaged and we were threatening to burn the place down! Thank heavens the police did not shoot to disperse 20 rampaging postmen/women!!
On the 15th May 2008 the official boycott commenced with worldwide support from Nigerians.
On 16th May 2008 Villager Okenipoto was on a phone in television programme in Nigeria. He talked about the case, what happened the previous day at BAHQ. The campaign received a lot of support from callers.
In May 2008 the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority in a bid to investigate the matter as directed by the President took out a full page ad in a national newpaper asking passengers onboard the flight to contact the department. They also invited British Airways Officials to a meeting, it was reported that the meeting was terminated when the DG, NCAA discovered BA had sent low level officers to the meeting.
28th May, Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa informs British High Commissioner to Nigeria the Federal government will not tolerate the maltreatment of Nigerian passengers. British High Commissioner ‘apologises to Nigerian government and describes the 27th March incident as “unfortunate” - Not apology Nigerians say, BA, not British Government MUST apologise to Nigerians.
On the 4th July 2008 Ayo Omotade was formally charged
On the 7th July 2008 Respect Nigerians Coalition wrote to NASS. The letter was delivered to Hon. Osagie, a member of the lower House of Representative in Abuja. Though we got a response from Hon. Osagie and he agreed to assist, we have not heard from from either party since our last communication in early July
On 14th July 2008 Ayo enters a ‘Not Guilty” plea at Uxbridge Magistrate Court
Case at Uxbridge Magistrate court adjourned till 18th September. BA asked to provide manifest of passengers on the flight.
14th July Respect Nigerians Coalition wrote to President Yar’Adua and the Nigeria High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. We have not received an acknowledgement or response to both letters.
On 15th July Respect Nigerians Coalition wrote to over 100 British Airways Shareholders requesting that shareholders ask BA management questions relating to the case and their delivery of customer service on the London-Nigeria route. RNC also protested outside the premises of the venue of the AGM and led a protest to the Nigerian embassy and handed out petitions to both the shareholders as well as the Embassy staff on the same day.
18th September 2008 hearing adjourned because BA has not provided documents requested by Defence. BA claim no CCTV on the plane
17th September 2008 Respect Nigerians Coalition protest at BA headquarters.
2nd January 2008 case management hearing to have the case struck out because BA still has not provided documents. Case moved to Brent Magistrate Court.
1st May case management hearing. Defence requests the case is struck out due to BA and CPS failing to provide passenger manifest.
The Hearing:
Ironically a Nigerian lady was the prosecution counsel. BA had 9 witness statements whilst the defence 2 witness statements (RNC thanks the two witnesses who provided these statements!) three prosecution witnesses gave evidence at the hearing.
The witnesses for the prosecution told some lies which were quite glaring to the magistrate. The Met Police officer who gave evidence told a multitude of lies RNC members in the gallery were stumped! This officer was so confident that he had nailed Ayo with his evidence, he smirked at Ayo and those seated in the public gallery before leaving the court room. For instance he gave evidence saying that Ayo had stood on the seat in the plane and was jumping up and down like a raging bull. How feasible it is for a heavily built 5’11 gentleman to do this did not take the magistrate long to figure out. The officer told the court that when Ayo was being escorted off the plane, he lurched at members of the crew, however, in testimony given by the purser the previous day, the court was told that Ayo (the raging bull) calmed down when the police arrived and left the plane quietly. The Purser also said that cabin crew were standing in the gulley area of the plane with the curtains drawn to keep them away from the view of passengers! The quite obvious lies on the part of the Police officer was mentioned by the magistrate when giving her judgment.
In giving her judgement the magistrate said the prosecution had not proven its case that Ayo Omotade had acted in a;
“threatening /abusive/insulting/disorderly behaviour towards a member of the crew of the aircraft” therefore had not contravened the Act, thereby finding him not guilty of the charge.
She said Ayo had complained of the service and the noise the deportee was making and had also told the officer that the man said he was dying and to please not kill him. All of Ayo’s actions on BA075 cannot be said to be threatening /abusive/insulting/disorderly behaviour directed at the crew.
After the verdict was given Ayo gave an interview to the reporter from the Guardian who covered the entire proceeding. Members of the RNC have indicated to the press that the boycott campaign against BA continues till our demands are met in full and that a civil suit has now been filed against the relevant authorities for what was a simply malicious prosecution.
RNC is happy about the decision, this will prove what we have been saying for months that Ayo is an innocent man, that BA have been using intimidation right from the start; from ejecting 136 passengers, to calling the police in Nigeria to claim they were under siege to pursuing the case with Ayo. Well they have had their day in court, Ayo, the passengers and RNC will have theirs. With Ayo pursuing a civil claim against BA, RNC will encourage other passengers to pursue a class action suit against the airline. We shall also be calling on our govt to sanction BA since it is now evidently clear that their actions against Nigeria boils down to the fact that they have little or no respect for Nigeria, the Nigerian government and the Nigerian people and that BA is institutionally racist as claimed by one of their own.
The RNC wishes to thank ALL Nigerians who signed the petition and especially villagers. Your support has given us the needed courage and determination to follow this through. RNC also say a big thank you to the big chief Big K of the Nigeriavillagesquare.com, his support and help with the campaign and setting up this website is greatly appreciated.
Below is British Airways statement released on the 1st May 2008.
We have made it clear that the decision to offload passengers was made in consultation with, and on the advice of, the United Kingdom police; and the sole aim of this decision was to ensure the safety of our passengers, aircraft, and crew.
“Offloading passengers is not a decision that is taken lightly, and is a rare occurrence. However, the disturbance on board the BA75 service to Lagos on Thursday 27th March was a very serious incident which required the presence of 20 uniformed police officers to regain control of the situation.
“Given the level of disruption on board the plane as it was preparing to depart, it was not possible to pinpoint which passengers were the most involved. In addition, our crew was subjected to both verbal abuse and physical assault which, in the confined space of an aircraft, can be a particularly serious issue.
“Hence the police decided, with the agreement of the captain, that it would be unwise to let all the passengers travel on the aircraft as their behaviour could pose a safety risk.
“Of the 133 passengers offloaded following the disturbance 64 re-boarded the flight before take-off. Those offloaded were of various nationalities, including British and American passengers. There was also a mix of nationalities among those who flew, including Nigerian passengers.
“The arrest and detention of one of the passengers involved was a police decision, and is not something that British Airways can comment on. The remaining offloaded passengers were offered overnight accommodation where appropriate, and were re-booked on alternative flights.”
“British Airways has a long and proud history of serving Nigeria and its people. For over 70 years the airline has flown from the UK to Nigeria, connecting the country to the rest of the world.”
The court hearing further proves the lies contained in the above statement. How come no other passenger was charged if such grave assaults took place and the one charged was found not guilty by court after hearing all their evidence?
Fellow campaigners the battle is not over yet! The boycott continues until BA meet our demands!
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- tender a clear and well-worded apology to all passengers affected by their discriminatory and intimidatory conduct aboard flight BA075 on 27 March, 2008 in a Nigerian national newspaper;
- tender a clear and well-worded written apology and appropriate compensation to Mr Ayodeji Omotade for financial and emotional losses suffered as a result of the conduct of British Airways and its agents on the day;
- issue an undertaking that British Airways shall improve its customer care culture and desist from such practices that give the impression that the airline is arrogant, uncaring and discriminatory.
