Lagos | Tuesday
NIGERIAS national Tae Kwan Do coach Yusuf Yahaya took ill on a South African flight and died after he was refused hospitalisation in Johannesburg because he lacked an entry visa for South Africa, officials said on Monday.
Yahaya was returning to Nigeria with the national Tae Kwan Do team aboard a South African Airways flight July 13 after attending a festival in South Korea, the officials said.
Officials of the Nigerian human rights group Hurilaws and company officials said Yahaya took ill on the flight and collapsed on disembarking in Johannesburg airport.
Hurilaws said he was then denied hospitalisation for several hours on the grounds that he did not have an entry visa into South Africa.
After several hours of uncertainty, he was carried back aboard the aircraft where he had a heart attack and died, Hurilaws said.
A Nigerian journalist aboard the aircraft was taking notes and was asked by the crew to stop but he refused, Hurilaws said.
The plane’s captain called on the police to arrest the journalist and he was only rescued by colleagues, the group went on.
SAA “regrets” Yahaya’s death The captain then ordered all passengers in the economy class, most of whom were Nigerian, to disembark, the group said. The flight eventually left with all the passengers back aboard after a three hour delay.
Hurilaws director Olisa Agbakoba filed a protest with the Nigerian authorities last week asking them to take the matter up with South African authorities, his office said.
“This type of behaviour can only have gravest consequences for Nigeria-South African relations,” Agbakoba said in his protest letter, a copy of which was sent to the airline.
A senior South African Airways official in Lagos confirmed that Yahaya had died aboard its aircraft and said the company “regretted” the incident.
He said the company was seeking a meeting with the human rights group to discuss the matter.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Yahaya had failed to declare his health status before boarding the plane and that, as a result, “the normal immigration laws have to apply.”
Yahaya’s corpse was still in a morgue in Johannesburg on Monday, the official said. – AFP