Nigerian passengers aboard an Air France flight have been left stranded in Lomé, Togo, following a diversion caused by bad weather in Abuja.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, raised the alarm over the situation in a statement posted on his official X account on Thursday night.
Keyamo revealed that the Air France flight from Paris to Abuja was unable to land due to adverse weather conditions and was redirected to Lomé. However, he expressed concern over the airline’s handling of the situation.
He said, “I have just been alerted of a situation involving mostly Nigerian passengers left stranded at Lome, Togo, by Air France. I am told that the flight from Paris bound for Abuja could not land due to the bad weather in Abuja this evening.
“The flight then diverted to Lome. However, the confounding situation now is that instead of bringing the passengers back to Abuja after the storm subsided, there are plans to leave them in Lome till tomorrow, even when that same flight will return to Abuja tonight to pick up passengers.”
The minister disclosed that he immediately took action to address the issue, engaging both his officials and the airline’s representatives.
“After directing my Director of Air Transport management to call the country manager of Air France, I also personally called Air France Nigeria a few minutes ago and insisted that those passengers must be brought back to Abuja tonight or be treated in line with best international standards if they must sleep in Lome.”
As of the time of filing this report, Air France had yet to issue an official statement regarding the matter.