The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) said it has observed with consternation, the latest outburst by Air Peace in what seems a series of ploys calculated to both obfuscate the issues and distract the Commission from the ongoing inquiry into alleged exploitative ticket pricing among other potential violations of consumers’ rights.
The FCCPC Last Thursday, the Commission had had to refute a report syndicated in a section of the media which grossly misrepresented the proceedings at a meeting between its officials and Air Peace team earlier on December 3 at the Commission’s Abuja headquarters, as a follow-up to an avalanche of petitions received from passengers in recent times.
Although Section 33 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA) 2018 grants the Commission discretionary power to conduct inquiries in public or in camera, the FCCPC chose to conduct the December 3 session in camera as a gesture of good faith to preserve the confidentiality.
But no sooner had the session ended than leaks appeared in the media attributing unfounded but prejudicial statements to the Commission’s officials, categorically declaring that “Air Peace was not under investigation” and copiously quoted the Air Peace’s Chairman, Mr. Allen Onyema, engaging in ostentation of self-adulation. Curiously, the same media leaks omitted a boastful statement by Mr. Onyema at the same December 3 engagement that he could decide to shut down the airline, ostensibly to show he was doing the nation a favour by flying.
In the December 5 statement, the Commission restated that the inquiry was still ongoing, urging the public to be wary of manufactured news, since the report was not disseminated on the Commission’s official communication platforms.
In a dramatic turn of events on Friday, Air Peace addressed a press conference in Lagos where it made several outlandish claims and innuendos obviously intended to whip up sentiments but conveniently avoided addressing the real issues.
