AYO OMOTADE SPEAKS EXCLUSIVELY WITH CHECKOUT - 'MY VICTORY AFTER A YEARS'S BATTLE WITH BA' LESSONS FOR OTHER AIR TRAVELLERS
A lot of wrongs do happen to Nigerians abroad courtesy of the erroneous belief that Nigeria is a place where law-breakers and criminals abound! Mr Ayo Omotade was a recent victim of this wrong belief. For trying to urge police officers against treating a Nigerian deportee extremely and disturbing the right of fellow passengers to peace on board a British Airways flight to Lagos, he got a raw deal from British security officers! His experience was reported in some British and Nigerian newspapers. For the first time since the incident happened, Ayo Omotade is granting a personal interview to the press, to Checkout! Please relax and do a thorough read of Mr Omotade’s experience in the UK for asking airline staff and security agents to respect the right of a Nigerian to decent treatment!
Thank you for making a time for this interview. Can you kindly tell us a bit about yourself?
I am Ayo Omotade, an I.T. Consultant working and living in the UK. I specialise in IT security, forensics and business development. I’m an easy going and friendly person. I suppose that suffices as a bit about myself.
Now on the British Airways saga, can you give us an account of what led to the ejection of over 130 Lagos-bound passengers on the airline’s flight sometime last year in which you were prominent amongst the ejected passengers?
AYO - Ok on 27th March 2008, I was travelling to Lagos for my brother’s wedding and arrived at Heathrow airport to board a BA flight to Nigeria. Just to cut a long story short, as I was boarding the aircraft; that was flight BA075, I could hear a very, very loud, agonizing noise coming from the rear of the plane and as I was moving towards the end of the plane the noise grew louder and louder. The noise was very piercing to the ear, very agonizing and extremely traumatic.
By the time I got to my seat, which was the last seat of the first row of the plane, I saw some police officers, British Airways staff and some other people, surrounding the very last seat in the middle row. So I had no visibility of the person that was shouting but the noise was extremely loud. I put my stuff in, everybody put theirs’ too and we were all timid and afraid. We didn’t know what was going on.
But definitely we had an idea that a deportation exercise. To our horror the thing went on for the next 25-30 minutes non-stop and there was a point in time when the guy spoke in Pidgin English with an intonation that tells that he’s a Nigerian of Igbo extraction. He shouted, ‘I go die o! Ago die o! These people will kill me! And I just thought well that was a good point to investigate, that it was time to interpret what this guy was saying to the police officers and the immigration people who were there along the British Airways staff.
You can read more on this very interesting and enthralling story in our latest edition.
A lot of wrongs do happen to Nigerians abroad courtesy of the erroneous belief that Nigeria is a place where law-breakers and criminals abound! Mr Ayo Omotade was a recent victim of this wrong belief. For trying to urge police officers against treating a Nigerian deportee extremely and disturbing the right of fellow passengers to peace on board a British Airways flight to Lagos, he got a raw deal from British security officers! His experience was reported in some British and Nigerian newspapers. For the first time since the incident happened, Ayo Omotade is granting a personal interview to the press, to Checkout! Please relax and do a thorough read of Mr Omotade’s experience in the UK for asking airline staff and security agents to respect the right of a Nigerian to decent treatment! 
