Drug Intake: “If NSIB Is On Campaign Smear Against Air Peace, My Name Should Be Kept Off” – Crew Member Issues 72hrs Ultimatum

By Adesina Soyooye

Following the allegation by the Nigerian Safety and Investigation Bureau, NSIB, that crew members of Air Peace Airline including the Pilot and co-Pilot tested positive to alcohol and drug use after a recent incident at the Port Harcourt International Airport, a crew member has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Government Agency to retract its statement, clear her name or face legal action.

In a revelation that alarmed and shocked the flying public, NSIB, in a preliminary finding  which went viral on Friday,  September 12, after an Air Peace Airline’s Aircraft from Lagos to PH, had an incident on July 13, alleged that the crew members tested positive to both alcohol and drug use – a no-no in the flying industry.

Even though the Management of the Airline, in a swift response same Friday, dismissed the very serious allegations on the grounds that neither it, nor the crew members, have been formally informed of the findings, a crew member on that flight, Victory Maduneme, has issued a seven-day ultimatum to NSIB  to retract the allegation of drug- use against her. Otherwise, she threatened, she would take a legal action.

Maduneme who issued this ultimatum on Friday in an interview with Arise Television, was outraged that the NSIB said she tested positive to the use of marijuana.

She, also, hinted at a possible smear campaign against the Airline by NSIB, but posited that if so,  the name of the innocent should be spared.

Her words: “I was shocked when I was given a test result that said I had marijuana in my system.

“I was told marijuana stays in the system for 90 days, but when they carried out a follow-up test, I tested negative.

“If NSIB is doing a smear campaign against the Airline, it should keep the innocent people away from this. If not for the kindness of my Chairman, they would have sacked me and blacklisted me. And once that is done, no Airline in the world will pick me, because now, they have painted me as this person that has drug in her system.

“This is really very bad. And, if in the next 72 hours, NSIB does not retract whatever it has said against me, then, I think we should sue. This is pure defamation of character.”

The Air Peace Airline Aircraft, a Boeing 737-534, registration number, 5N-BQQ, which had 103 people on board, landed long on runway 21 after an unstabilised final approach, and touched down 2,264 metres from the runway threshold before coming to a final stop 209 metres into the clearway.