Charity Nnaji:
Turkish Airlines has abandoned students and teachers of Glisten
International College Abuja in Istanbul, Turkey, over failure of the airline to
airlift them back to Nigeria as scheduled.
The children between the ages of 11 and 15, Newworld.news gathered, were made to sleep at the resting area of
the airport terminal over night with just blankets provided them by the
management of the airline rather than hotel accommodation.
The team, which had gone to the United States to represent Nigeria in a
competition few weeks ago, were forced to part with the sum of $40 each,
totalling $880 before they could be allowed to sleep in the frozen condition at
the airport.
Information gathered from Communicationweek
quoting a source close to the school said the team had boarded Turkish Airlines
flight from Abuja to US with a stopover at Istanbul Airport. But trouble started
on the return
leg, US-Istanbul-Abuja of the flight.
Information also indicated that the flight from US to Istanbul was delayed
for an hour by the same airline and as at the time the flight eventually
departed US and arrived at Istanbul for the connecting flight, the
Istanbul-Abuja flight had already departed.
The source said that when the team contacted the management of the airline
in Turkey for a better accommodation, the airline declined, saying that they
could not be responsible for their accommodation despite the fact that the
flight miss was not their own making. Since the students had been stranded at
the airport they have been responsible for their own feeding and other
expenses, the source said.
“These are children between the ages
of 11 and 15 years and are exposed to this harsh treatment. Could they have
done that with their own citizens? Or, will they allow any Nigerian carrier to
do that to their citizens in Nigeria? I am begging our government to take up
this challenge because these kids went to represent Nigeria in the US.”
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