Controversy is trailing the story that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was in the Ethiopia airline passenger plane that had difficulty in landing on Wednesday in Lagos.
The controversy was sparked by the denial by Mr Kehinde Akinyemi that his principal, Obasanjo was in the plane. https://persecondnews.com/2019/05/30/obasanjo-denies-being-involved-in-ethiopian-airline-mishap/
According to PersecondNews:
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has denied being a passenger in the Ethiopian airline aircraft that had difficulties landing at the Lagos airport.
Reports in the media on Wednesday said the ex-president was among the 393 passengers who were on board the aircraft. The Ethiopian Airlines aircraft, ET-901, had departed the Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa, at 9:10am, Ethiopian time (7am Nigerian time).
Obasanjo on Wednesday night said he was in Abeokuta, Ogun state and did not travel outside the country. Kehinde Akinyemi, spokesperson to the former leader said the report is false and misleading.
NAN had reported that the former President was returning from Ethiopia where he attended the Africa Union (AU) on Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) meeting.
The NAN correspondent who reported the story who was in the plane was also at the conference.
But in a twist, Akinyemi reported that Obasanjo was at his residence in Abeokuta when the incident happened, but Premium Times had an extensive interview in which Obasanjo confirmed the incident and narrated how he felt as the ordeal lasted.
Hereunder is the exclusive report of Premium Times on the issue with the headline, “EXCLUSIVE: My experience on Ethiopian Airline that nearly crashed in Lagos — Obasanjo”
Read and decide who the lier is, NAN or Obasanjo.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has narrated his experience while on board an Ethiopian Airline flight that nearly crashed on Wednesday at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
The airplane, Boeing 777-300, narrowly avoided an accident while trying to land with nearly 400 people on board.
In an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Obasanjo said ”he remained calm and read papers while the scary situation occurred.”
“While it all happened, I was reading my papers,” said Mr Obasanjo. “One man, who was next to me, said, ‘Oga you no worry?’ I said, ‘Íf I worry, what will I do? If you are on a plane and you have a situation like this, why should you worry?’ I left everything in the hands of God.”
Mr Obasanjo was returning from a stakeholders dialogue on continental trade and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) which ended on Tuesday in Addis Ababa.
The plane, with 394 persons on board, had a false landing due to strong winds and a heavy downpour and was about to overshoot its runway before it returned to the air.
It later landed safely at the airport after spending about 10 minutes in the air.
Close shave
“I was on Ethiopian Airline. Rain just came down heavily,” Mr Obasanjo recalled.
“The pilot thought he could land. And he landed. He touched down. But I think he took a swift decision that he had to take off again.
“So he took off. If he did not, I think he probably would have overrun the runway. He then apologised and said he would try to land again. He tried again, and we landed safely. And we all clapped.”
The ex-military head of state said the pilot first landed the plane at about 12:20 p.m. before the incident, but finally landed safely on return at 12:30 p.m.
“He touched the ground. Then he took off and apologised and landed again at about 12.30. We spent just about 10 minutes in the air before we landed again,” he said.
Ethiopian Airlines recently suffered a crash of its flight ET302 flying its B-737 MAX 800 aircraft in March which killed all 157 persons on board.
The aircraft en route Nairobi from Addis Ababa, crashed six minutes after takeoff around Bishoftu, 40 miles South-east of the Ethiopian capital.
EXCLUSIVE: My experience on Ethiopian Airline that nearly crashed in Lagos — Obasanjo
Meanwhile, the management of the airline has also confirmed the incident and explained that it the action of the pilot was normal in such situation to avoid over-shooting the runway.
