Ifeanyi Onuba, Abuja
The Attorney General of the Federation
and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has issued a 21-day ultimatum
to Turkish Airlines to comply with the order of the Consumer Protection
Council or face prosecution.
The CPC had requested the airline to
provide it with detailed report of events that led to the alleged abuse
of its passengers, who flew into Abuja on December 20, 2015 without
their luggage.
However, rather than providing a
detailed report, the airline, according to the council, supplied
information that was not useful to the CPC in its investigation into the
alleged consumer abuse.
The development made the council to make
a request to the AGF’s office for the prosecution of the airline and
its principal officers for their refusal to honour the order of the CPC.
Responding to the CPC’s request, the
Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation, Mohammed Diri, in a
letter signed on behalf of the attorney general and addressed to the
Director-General of the CPC, Mrs. Dupe Atoki, said the action of the
council was backed by law.
Diri said in the letter that the order of the AGF had already been communicated to the management of the airline.
Reacting to the development, Atoki, in a
statement issued on Sunday, described the AGF’s order as a reflection
of the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to
ensuring that operators in all sectors played by the rules and respected
the country’s laws.
She added that the attorney general’s
stance was a reawakening signal to multinationals operating in the
country on the need to exhibit international best practices.
The passengers on the said flights, some
of whom were said to have travelled with minors, including those whose
destinations were outside Abuja, were allegedly subjected to untold
hardships, as they were forced to repeatedly check at the airport for
their luggage.
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