The Nigerian Bar Association has dragged the British Airways before the Federal High Court in Lagos, following the maltreatment of its Nigerian passenger, Mr Ayo Omotade
In a motion ex-parte jointly filed by Omotade, NBA and its President, Mr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), the plaintiffs are seeking the leave of the court to enforce Omotade�s human rights against the BA.
Omotade, a Nigerian citizen and an information technology consultant based in Chatham, Kent, United Kingdom, was one of the Nigerian passengers on the BA�s flight.
He was said to have expressed concern in the way a Nigerian deportee, who was handcuffed and screaming in pidgin English � I go die o, was being restrained by the UK police officers.
Omotade, who reportedly pleaded with the officers not to kill the deportee, was said to have been humiliated and handcuffed, just as he was branded as �disruptive passenger.�
The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare that the arrest, detention, humiliation and the persecution of Omotade on March 27 on board the BA�s flight BA075 from London to Lagos without lawful justification was illegal.
They added that the development was a violation of Omotade�s rights to personal liberty, freedom of movement and expression, protection against racial and ethnic discrimination and protection from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
The plaintiffs are also asking the court to restrain BA and its agents from further arresting, molesting or persecuting Omotade.
Agbakoba also wants the court to hold that as a human rights activist, public interest litigator and president of the NBA, he is competent to initiate the suit on behalf of Nigerian passengers numbering over 100 on the BA�s flight in the public interest.
NBA further urged the court to declare that as the umbrella association of Nigerian lawyers with a stake in advancing the human rights of Nigerians all over the world, it is competent to join in filing the suit.
The plaintiffs are therefore demanding public apology from the BA, saying that the apology should be published in five major Nigerian dailies.
They are also asking the BA to pay compensatory damages to Omotade for his unlawful arrest and detention.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the matter.