Oshiomhole is Right…There's No Peace in Air Peace!

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By Orobosa Omo-Ojo JP

His Excellency, Distinguished Comrade Senator Adams Oshiomhole is right!

He is right on his summation that “There’s No Peace in Air Peace.” Indeed, peace has departed from Air Peace Airline.

He is right to have obstructed the illegal, senseless boarding that disenfranchised passengers that had already checked in on-line before they arrived at the airport that early morning.

He is right for remaining as the defender of the ‘ordinary Nigerians’ that service providers like Air Peace, have mercilessly exploited without protection from the Regulatory and other Protection Agencies.

Senator Oshiomhole deserves to earn the honour of ‘Defender of the Masses’ Award for his rare display of patriotism at the Air Peace counter in the Lagos Airport on Wednesday, June 11, 2025.

He deserves the ‘Defender of Masses’ Award for taking over the responsibility of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigerian (FAAN), who for obvious reason, are ever ready to look the other way anytime the rights of travelers are violated by the shylock airlines in Nigeria—including Air Peace.

It should be recorded that Comrade Oshiomhole’s recent confrontation with Air Peace, was purely driven by his desire to defend the hapless fellow Nigerian passengers who were unfairly denied boarding by Nigeria’s most unreliable airline—Air Peace.

Oshiomhole’s encounter with Air Peace is generously in the media and public space and he has strenuously addressed the lies told by Mr Allen Onyema, Managing Director of Air Peace, that he disrupted operations and attempted to use his “security escorts to gain access to a flight after check-in had closed.” This is an unbridled lie by Air Peace management.

It is only logical to believe Oshiomhole’s version of the story—going by Onyema’s Air Peace poor records of service delivery. Different passengers have collaborated the former Edo State Governor story that he arrived well before the flight’s departure time and had checked in online the previous evening only to be deprived from boarding along with other passengers.

Debunking Onyema’s lies, Oshiomhole explained that: “The flight was scheduled for 6:30am. I checked in online at 7:49pm the previous day. So, how could I have come late?”

On the allegations that he came with security entourage to intimidate Air Peace staff, the Senator dismissed Onyema’s claim…“I was alone. No aide, no policeman, no orderly. Just me and a small briefcase. The claim that I came with security men is completely false.

“Those uniformed personnel seen in the video were airport security staff doing their routine work.”

Oshiomhole’s offence is that, unlike other privileged Nigerians, he refused to yield his grounds when Air Peace staffers offered him preferential treatment to board him and leave other stranded travelers behind.

This offer came after they were unable to terrorize the former Labour Leader and quickly turned around to placade him with preferential treatment, which he stoutly rejected—insisting that every other passengers they wrongly stopped from boarding that early morning flight to Abuja, must board with him.

I have watched an online video of a female passenger who gave her eyewitness report and equally shared her frustration on how she was stopped from boarding, despite the fact that she arrived before 6am that morning. The lady also shared her horrible story of how Air Peace refunded a paltry sum for a cancelled flight four months after the cancellation made her missed her training in Dubai.

The lady said she arrived at 5:55am despite completing check in formality online, she was denied boarding and Oshiomhole arrived with his boarding pass at this point to face the same dilemma.

But based on his street ruggedness, a so-called manager offered to ‘help’ him behind the scene. He refused to be given special treatment and insisted that if he must be allowed to board, the others (that checked in online) who were in the same situation should also be boarded.

“Don’t give me special treatment. Respect everyone’s rights!” Comrade Oshiomhole told the Air Peace manager who had offered to settle the Oshiomhole’s issue quietly.

“This is not about me. This is about all of us,” he insisted.

Honesty, peace has since departed from Air Peace— judging by the daily agony experienced by passengers flying the airline at exorbitant and unreliable planes and a management that lacks operational integrity and reliability.

As succinctly put by an aviation stakeholder, “…aviation is a high-trust, safety-critical industry where brand perception is built not just on frequency of flights or competitive fares, but on passenger confidence, regulatory compliance, crew professionalism, and uninterrupted service reliability.

“The paradox here is both semantic and strategic—while the name Air Peace evokes tranquility, assurance, and seamless travel, recent public discourse, customer feedback, and regulatory scrutiny suggest turbulence that goes beyond just airspace.”

Allen Onyema and his gang of ‘hackers’ have developed schemes to rip passengers off, through make believe ‘early departures’ policy, which in turn gives them room to sell tickets at over 150% hike to desperate travellers at the point of departure.

Sadly, Air Peace, Arik, Green Africa and a host of others are flexing Nigerians without restraint in the absence of a serious regulatory agency that will enforce the rights of passengers.

All over, except in Nigeria, airlines are liable for any negative action that affects their passengers—cancelled flights, delayed flights, and untimely refunds for tickets. But not so in Nigeria where passengers are treated with disdain.

In late 90s, the British Airways compensated me with 1000 USD for late arrival of copies of my then Corporate Magazine on arrival in Madrid, Spain.

I boarded the airline at Gatwick airport after printing the special edition in Kent, England, and was enroute Madrid to distribute the publication at the Bretton Woods (World Bank and International Monetary Funds) Annual General Meeting. On arrival, it was discovered that the consignment was left behind in London.

I was checked into a Marriott hotel near the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas International Airport, why waiting for the magazines which arrived later that evening. I was also paid 1000 USD for the inconveniences and business loss.

The Nigerian case is different.

Fast forward to one morning in May 2025. My friend, Osa Osunde and I, left Lagos Island to catch Green Africa 6:30am flight departing for Benin City, only to be told casually by the ticketing staff that the flight has been cancelled and would not fly until the following day.

We were destructed and had no choice but to buy Air Peace tickets at an outrageous ₦253,000. The Green Africa ticket remains unused and without refunds.

Just last Friday June 13th, few minutes to board an Arik flight to Lagos from Benin City, I gathered from privilege information that the aircraft that was already at the tarmac managed to land that morning.

My source added that engineers were expected from Lagos to come fix the plane before it can take passengers to Abuja and then return to Benin to evacuate us to Lagos. The flight was scheduled for 11:30am and it already boarding time.

There was no public notice, and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) overlooked the danger of clearing the faulty aircraft after the emergency repair to airlift travelers to Abuja and Lagos.

Worried about the air worthiness of the Arik aircraft, I informed the honourable Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo SAN of the scary Arik plane at the Benin airport. Promptly, the minister wasted no time to ground the operation of that particular aircraft.

The episode caused me a lot, as I had no choice but to cough out ₦258,000 for Green Africa ticket that departed later that day. Not surprising, Arik has failed to acknowledge their failure to operate flight 621. It has equally failed to make refunds for the ‘no show’ ticket.

Air Peace and others have continued to behave like the proverbial barber’s chair—jerking uncontrollable and exploiting Nigerians who are left without better alternatives, because only few Nigerians are wired to be speak against injustice in a society that despises the honest and pious ones.