Qatar Airways meted out poor treatment to a Nigerian passenger by detaining him for 18 hours, compelling him to sign a document written in Arabic, and paying a hefty fine to secure his release.

The Nigerian passenger’s travails with the airline were revealed by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)’s Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, in a statement.

According to Achimugu, a Qatar Airways crew member accused the Nigerian passenger of touching her buttocks while wheeling a passenger during boarding for a flight from Lagos to the United States (US) via Doha.

Achimugu added that the female crew member reported the incident when the flight landed in Doha, leading to the Nigerian’s arrest and detention.

“During the period, his wife suffered mental, physical, and psychological trauma without any form of care. She wondered how her husband could have committed such a despicable infraction given that she was with him throughout the boarding process,” Achimugu said.

He added that the authorities forced the Nigerian passenger to pay a hefty fine and sign a document written in Arabic to regain his freedom and proceed on his journey to the US.

Qatar Airways, however, refused to fly him to the US, prompting the Nigerian to buy tickets on another airline.

Achimugu also said the NCAA invited the country manager of Qatar Airways in Nigeria, but he sent his subordinates to attend in his stead.

“Upon invitation by the NCAA, the airline’s country manager, who has a penchant for evading meetings with the NCAA, only sent his subordinates to attend. However, the NCAA made a determination on that matter along with others.

“As has become typical of @qatarairways, they failed to comply with all determinations made from that meeting. They have also failed to treat subsequent complaints from other passengers escalated to them by the CAA, including total silence upon receipt of a letter of investigation (LOI) sent to them by the NCAA,” Achimugu added.

He condemned the act, adding that Nigeria will not tolerate infringement of consumer protection regulations by international airlines.

“This is not a situation that we would accept here. It is against the law for ANY airline not to respond to the NCAA. It is against the law to provide false information to the NCAA.

“It is against the law to fail to comply with the provisions of Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023.” (The Guardian)