The lawyer of Mr Obiajulu Uja, the anti-Tinubu passenger aboard Ibom Air’s Abuja-Lagos flight has disclosed that his client is battling mental illness.
In a video obtained by FirstNigeriaTV, the man stood in between the passengers’ seat in the middle of the aircraft and could be heard threatening that Mr Tinubu must not be sworn in as Nigerian president next month.
His conducts and utterances attracted the attention of other passengers aboard the flight, while some other passengers asked him go to court. It was observed that no fewer than six airport security officers removed him after he held the plane for more than an hour.
But according to his lawyer, the passenger, a former bank worker in Lagos, had been in Abuja for a few weeks battling mental illness.
The lawyer stated that his client who hails from Oji-River Local Government Area, Enugu State would be charged on Monday with “criminal intimidation and public disturbance.”
The lawyer said,” The DPO said the man will be charged on Monday; this is a man that we said is mentally ill. Have you conducted any medical examination on him to know whether he is mentally fit to be charged to court? On what grounds are you charging?”
The lawyer added that: “The man worked with Zenith Bank until he developed some health issues. Some days ago, Riz Continental Hotel, Abuja, chased him away from the hotel because of his mental instability.”
To buttress his point, the further stated that Uja bought three tickets on Friday for Lagos State, and on getting to the airport, he (Uja) had issues with almost all the airlines before he eventually boarded Ibom Air.
The lawyer, Mr. Ugwu said when he asked him what happened, “he told us that he wanted to market his products and that he was just trying to get the attention of the passengers when he raised the issue of Asiwaju will not be sworn-in.”
“If you go through his social media, you will understand that he is not even a member of the Obedient movement. But the long and short of it is that the man is mentally unstable.
“After he was arrested and the DPO saw reports in the media, the DPO confided in me that the man is not a normal person.
“It’s just the system; I told the DPO that you do not even need a medical certificate from the family but as an investigator, employ the services of a psychiatrist to confirm the mental stability of the man. But as I speak with you, I left the police station around 5pm and we have not seen the DPO today in the station,” he added.
Speaking further, the lawyer said, “I told the DPO that this man needs medical attention immediately before the whole system will collapse.”
