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By Taiye Agbaje
Mr Jake Epelle, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Albino Foundation (TAF) Africa on Thursday, testified in his N150 million suit filed against Emirates Airline.
Epelle gave his evidence as sole witness before Justice Musa Liman of a Federal High Court in Abuja over allegations bordering on the breach of his fundamental human rights by the airline.
Led in evidence by his lawyer, Regina Okotie-Eboh, Epelle identified his witness statement on oath dated March 18, 2024, and adopted it as his evidence-in-chief.
Okotie-Eboh also tendered Epelle’s international passport, the boarding pass, the flight ticket, the letters from Stanford Medicine, also known as Stanford Healthcare; the email message and the ticket purchases from Emirates Airline as evidence in the case.
The lawyer equally tendered the flight ticket from Delta Airline, another letter from Stanford University School of Medicine, a letter from the plaintiff’s counsel demanding N150 million damages from Emirates Airline, and another letter from plaintiff’s counsel to Epelle in respect of fees for filing the suit, among others, as evidence.
The lawyer to the Emirates Airline, Michael Dedon, did not object to tendering all the documents and Justice Liman admitted them in evidence and marked them as exhibits in the suit.
When Okotie-Eboh asked Epelle what he wanted from the court, the TAF CEO said: “I want this honourable court to grant my reliefs.”
Dedon, while cross examining the witness, said Epelle should know as a regular traveller that holding a visa of a country, does not guarantee anyone an entry into the destination country.
Responding, Epelle, though admitted Dedon’s statement, he however clarified that the process of stopping an individual from entering a country should be the responsibility of the embassy staff and not the airline.
“It is the embassy staff that will come there and cancel my visa and tell me not to go. But this did not happen,” he said.
The witness said the Emirate Airline did not show him any tangible evidence why he was denied access into the U.S.
According to him, it was just a mere information.
When the lawyer told him if he agreed with him that admission into a foreign country is at the discretion of immigration officers attending to the immigrant, Epelle insisted that it was not the US immigration officers that denied him access into the country.
“Just from your words, it is the immigration officers, by themselves at the point of entry that will turn you back. But this was not the case.”
He said it was the Emirates airline that stopped him from proceeding on his journey.
He said even when he came back to the US Embassy in Nigeria for clarification, the officer who attended to him confirmed that his name was not on the restriction list.
“I turned down the US green card because of the people I represent in the country.
“I hold a UN status; I am the UN Ambassador for Albinism. I am a human rights defender and I won the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law,” he said.
Epelle, who broke down in tears in the witness box, said there was no reason the US would have denied him access into the country.
“My lord, it is so traumatic because any time this case comes up, it takes my memory back to what Emirates Airline did to me,” he said.
When Dedon asked Epelle if he was given any document from the US Embassy to show to the court that his name was not on the restriction list, he said diplomatically, the embassy would not have given him any documents.
He, however, said that the embassy worker showed him from their system to confirm that there was no email from the US Immigration and Border Control stopping him from entering the country.
He said it was the embassy worker who advised him to board Delta Airline back to the US.
“Look, I am a skin cancer patient. Emirates Airline would have just killed me for nothing,” he said, weeping.
Justuce Liman adjourned the matter until March 27 for defence to open their case.
Earlier before the case proceed, Okotie-Eboh informed the court that Epelle was indisposed.
The lawyer, who said Epelle came from the hospital bed to give evidence, prayed the court to allow the hearing proceed because the matter had been dragging since 2021 when it was filed.
“The matter was adjourned for hearing and our sole witness is around. He has been on admission but he is ready to give evidence,” she had said.
The judge, however, asked Epelle if the matter could be adjourned to allow him attend to his health but he agreed to go on with the matter.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Epelle, in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1285/2021, sued Emirates Airline as the sole defendant.
In his statement of claim, the TAF Africa CEO alleged that on Dec. 20, 2020, he was billed to travel on a medical trip to San Francisco, U.S.
He averred that upon being issued with the boarding passes to San Francisco. he alongside his colleague, Mrs Green Mary Ibitoru, boarded flight No EK 785 from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (U.A.E).
He alleged that upon arrival at the Dubai International Airport, on Dec. 20, 2020, he sought to board the next flight to Boston as already scheduled but was denied access to board the Emirate Airline.
Ekpelle said he was informed by the airline staff at their connecting desk in Dubai International Airport, Dubai that the United States of America (USA) Border Control sent a mail to them via electronic mail (email) requesting that he should be denied access to board their flight to Boston.
He said he kept demanding for the reason for being denied access to board the flight to Boston but was not given any except the one reason which was that the U.S. Border Control sent a mail to the defendant stating that the plaintiff be denied access to board the defendant’s flight to Boston.
He, however, said that he was never shown any mail from the US Boarder Control denying him access to board the defendant’s flight to Boston.
He said regardless of his insistence of not having any travel restriction, no criminal records and not been politically exposed, Emirate Airline did nothing to confirm his position.
He said some friends and persons who recognised him at the Dubai International Airport were embarrassed and thought he had been denied boarding for something related to crime, while others joined in confronting and pleading with the defendant to allow him board the flight to Boston but all to no avail.
Ekpelle said the airline’s refusal to allow him to board the flight to Boston caused him to miss the appointment with the dermatologists for his surgery.
The plaintiff averred that due to the missed surgery, he suffered untold hardships and pain that would not have been if the trip had not been aborted and the surgery had been carried out as initially scheduled.
According to him, the defendant’s act of refusing me access to board, caused me added inconvenience as I returned to Nigeria without my luggage as the luggage had been tagged with the luggage of the said colleague.
He said his ticket to Boston and San-Francisco was seized and one of the tickets was used to escort him on board Emirates Airline which brought him back to Abuja on December 20, 2020.
Ekpelle said he paid N886,751.00 to the airline as the air fare for a return trip from Abuja, Nigeria to San-Francisco en-route Dubai and Boston and from San Francisco (USA) to Abuja, Nigeria en-route New York and Dubai after which he was issued a flight ticket.
He said on his return to Abuja, he immediately visited the American Embassy where he met the Head of Mission and informed her about his ordeal at the hands of the defendant’s airlines in Dubai.
He said he was told that no restriction was placed on him as at Dec. 20, 2020 and that no instruction was given by the USA Boarder Control or any of the USA Consulate preventing him from entering USA.
He averred that after he was graciously booked for another surgical appointment by his dermatologist, he travelled back to Stanford Health Care in San Francisco through Delta Airline for the medical treatment.
He, therefore, sought a declaration that the failure of the Emirate Airline to allow him board the flight to Boston from Dubai was a breach of the contract of carriage between the duo.
He sought a declaration that in all circumstances of the case, the acts of the defendant in refusing the plaintiff access to board the defendant’s flight to Boston from Dubai is unjust and an infringement of the plaintiff’s right.
Ekpelle, therefore, sought an order, directing the airline to pay N150 million as general damages for the hardship, suffering, trauma, humiliation and embarrassment he suffered.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Sadiya Hamza
