A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Monday ordered the seizure of an aircraft belonging to Emirates Airline over an N8.1 million judgment debt.

The order was following a motion filed by Charles Mekwunye seeking the enforcement of a Supreme Court judgment in a suit between Promise Mekwunye and the airline.

Granting the reliefs sought by Mekwunye, Justice Mohammed Liman held that “it is accordingly ordered that an attachment is hereby issued on the judgment debtor’s aircraft registered as ‘A6 Aircraft Type 77W EK: 783/784’, or any other aircraft belonging to the judgment debtor which flies into Nigeria Territory, to be arrested and detained until the judgment debt is fully paid. If there is default after 30 days, the aircraft shall be auctioned to satisfy the judgment debt.”

The judge also ordered that Emirates Airline to bear the cost of maintenance and custody of the detained aircraft

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Mekwunye, who was then a student of North Texas University, Denton, Texas, United States had in 2008 dragged the airline to court for refusal of her two-way flight ticket from Dallas to Nigeria and back for no reason and for also refusing to fully refund the cost of the American Airline ticket she bought for her return trip to Nigeria.

She claimed that the airline offered no reason for its action leaving her stranded for days at the airport until she was able to secure a more expensive flight ticket on a longer route to Lagos.

In a judgment delivered on November 15, 2010, the Federal High Court held that the refusal of Emirates Airline to carry Mekwunye amounted to a breach of contract of carriage.

Consequently, the court ordered a full refund of the ticket without any deduction or charge and further granted N2.5 million in general damages and N250,000 in legal costs against the airline.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.

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