Four passengers who allegedly damaged the property of one of the country’s carriers, Air Peace, at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos were on Monday dragged before an Ogba Magistrates’ Court in Lagos.
The passengers were dragged before Magistrate I.A Abina on a three-count charge of malicious damage.
Two out of the four passengers, however evaded arraignment and are now at large, it was learnt.
The two arraigned passengers, Mrs Halima Mohammed and one Mr. Osagie however pleaded not guilty to the three-count charge.
The Police alleged that the defendants had committed the offences on May 26 at the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of the Murtala Muhammed Airport.
The passengers were accused of damaging a car belonging to Air Peace and assaulting a pilot while demanding compensation from the airline over the delay of their flight last Friday.
Following an application for bail filed by their counsel, the court granted a N100, 000 bail each to the passengers with two sureties in like sum.
The magistrate also fixed May 30 for perfection of bail and July 2 for mention.
It was learnt that Air Peace delayed the flights due to adverse weather report from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) on Friday, May 25, 2018.
Sources further said that following the development, the airline sent email and text messages to those whose flights were affected, notifying them that their flights had been rescheduled to different times of the day.
One of the flights affected by the adverse weather condition was a 7.40pm Abuja-Lagos service (Flight P47135).
"All passengers with reservation on the flight were notified at 12.37pm on Friday, May 25, 2018 (the day of the flight – seven hours ahead of the original flight time) through the email and phone contacts they supplied at the point of booking that the flight had been rescheduled till 9.35pm to avoid a situation where they would go to the airport to wait,” an inside source said.
