Life could not have been more difficult for Dr. Innocent Ogbue, a loyal Arik customer, who landed in police custody after omplaining about the poor treatment of Arik passengers while waiting at the boarding lobby at the Murtala Mohammed international Airport to board a flight to New York.
It all began on the on the 17th day of November 2016 when one Arunna Sanu ,an Arik staff ,saddled with the responsibility of checking in passengers on the boarding queue, launched into a lengthy phone conversation while on duty which caused an unusually long wait on the queue. Visibly irritated by the call, Dr. Innocent Ogbue turned round to discuss to a fellow customer about Arik’Air poor service, and surprisingly, that was his offence.

What started like a private conversation between two customers degenerated into ugly situation which would not have been, had the Arik staff handled it professionally. After threatening to refuse boarding to the passenger, on the baseless claim of his being unruly for making a harmless comment to a fellow passenger, he decided to follow good on his threat by inviting a senior Arik Staff who proceeded to refuse boarding to Dr. Innocent Ogbue.

The entire drama continued as Dr. Innocent Ogbue was subsequently transferred to the aviation security who found no evidence of any wrong doing, to the Nigerian police, at the Airport police division, where Mr. Innocent was detained for allegedly trying to cause a breach of public peace from 11:45 pm till 3am the next morning. At the station, his International Passport and his phone were seized and he was asked to report himself later in the day. Dr. Innocent who is a medical Doctor based in the United States, bitterly lamented that all this unnecessarily delay had led to him missing his crucial appointments and also deprived him of seeing his wife who was hospitalized after a near fatal accident in the U.S. He has vowed to seek redress to ensure justice is done .He says, it is not just about him but the millions of Nigerians who suffer harshly as a result of poor customer service.