- Airpeace crew: Withdraw Allegations in 72-Hour
By Abiola Olawale
In a dramatic escalation of tensions between Airpeace airline and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau, NSIB, a cabin crew member at Air Peace has issued a 72-hour ultimatum to the NSIB to retract drug-related allegations leveled against the airline crew.
The New Diplomat reports that the controversy stems from a preliminary NSIB report relating to a July 13 runway excursion incident which happened at the Port Harcourt International Airport. The preliminary report had indicted Air Peace’s crew members of allegedly using drugs.
Victory Maduneme, an Air Peace cabin crew member, vehemently denied the NSIB’s allegation that she tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component in cannabis.
She revealed that the NSIB investigators took her blood and urine samples after the incident, but only released the test results 10 days later.
She said: “They sent me to go and meet a doctor Adetunji of Kupa Aerospace Clinic, which is the licensed clinic for this kind of test.
“When I went to meet the doctor, he saw me and asked about marijuana — (It) usually stays in the system for 90 days — that if I have something like this. He’s advising me to go back and come later when I feel like everything has cleared from my system.
“I said no, if I go now and come back later, it proves I have the drugs in my system, I insisted that I want to do the test, which was done to me, and everything came out negative.
“There’s a question I need to ask NSIB: if marijuana was found in my system, were they not supposed to tell this to my airline, and they’re supposed to stop me from flying.
“Because then I am a risk to passengers on board, and my license would have been taken away from me, but no, they didn’t inform them of this until after two months. Now, it’s just coming out, and they’re spoiling the image of the airline.
“I sent a copy of my result to you; everything was clear. If marijuana was supposed to stay in the system for 90 days, I did my test in a month, and nothing was found in my system.
“If NSIB has a smearing campaign against the airline, they should keep the innocent people away from this.
“If not for the kindness of my chairman, they would have sacked and blacklisted me. Once that is done, no airline in the world will work with me because they’ve painted me as someone with drugs in her system.
“This is really very bad. In the next 72 hours, if NSIB does not retract what they’ve said against me, I think we should sue. This is pure defamation of character.”
Also, David Bernard, a co-pilot of the flight, maintained that he does not take alcohol or drugs, and to be tested for it, a breathalyser would have been more practical.
He said: “When you blow in your breath into the breathalyser, it checks the amount of alcohol in your system.
“But these guys at the Port Harcourt airport took our blood samples and urine on the 13th, and came back on the 23rd of July for the result.
“I mean, how long does it take for a result to be out. A blood test doesn’t even make sense, we’re in 2025.”
