• As Aviation Minister Keyamo Insists on International Best Practices

• Safiu Kehinde

A group of Nigerian passengers were again subjected to frustrating airline service as they were left stranded in Lome, Togo by Airfrance over poor weather.

This was disclosed in a post shared on X in Thursday, by the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo.

According to the Minister, the passengers had boarded the direct flight from France and were expected to arrive at Abuja.

Poor weather report unfortunately led to the stop over at Lome.

However, the airline would allegedly decided to leave the passengers at the airport despite report of stable weather condition.

This sparked frustration amongst the passengers.

As captured in a video attached to the post, one of the passengers was restricted by the airport officials as she protested over the airline’s decision to leave them despite heading to Abuja.

“I have just been alerted of a situation involving mostly Nigerian passengers left stranded at Lome, Togo, by @airfrance. I am told that the flight from Paris bound for Abuja could not land due to the bad weather in Abuja this evening. The flight then diverted to Lome.

“However, the confounding situation now is that instead of bringing the passengers back to Abuja after the storm subsided, there are plans to leave them in Lome till tomorrow, even when that same flight will return to Abuja tonight to pick passengers.” Keyamo disclosed.

The Minister charged the airline to either bring the passengers along or ensure they are treated in line with best international standards if they must sleep in Lome.

“After directing my Director of Air Transport management to call the country Manager of @airfrance, I also personally called @AirFranceNG a few minutes ago and insisted that those passengers must be brought back to Abuja tonight or be treated in line with best international standards if they must sleep in Lome.” He added.