On April 2, Dahiru Sambo, a civil servant living in Taraba, paid N73,080 for an Abuja-Lagos ticket with Dana Air, a Nigerian airline. This was without knowledge that the same ticket would be cancelled in only 23 days.

Twenty-three days after his purchase, and only nine days before his trip, Sambo told EQ that he got wind of news that the airline’s Air Operator Certificate (AOC) had been suspended.

Following this suspension, he got an email notification from Dana Air stating that he would no longer be able to fly to Lagos with the airline due to an operations audit by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

READ ALSO: Abuja Resident Joins Growing List of Unresolved Cases as Dana Air Withholds N274,690

But it didn’t end there. Sambo then contacted the airline for a refund of his ticket.

“After my flight ticket was abruptly cancelled, I began to request a refund of my ticket from the airline but I have not received a response from them yet. It has been four months and my money is still with the airline,” Sambo told EQ.

Sambo’s ticket with Dana Air.

When EQ reached Dana Air for inquiries on Sambo’s pending refund via WhatsApp on Friday, the airline said his refund was in process and he would be notified once it was completed.

“His refund request is currently in process. He will be contacted once the same is completed,” Dana Air wrote.

Michael Achimugu, the NCAA’s Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, told EQ on August 21 that the regulatory agency had issued a timeframe to the airline for the refund of customers’ monies trapped after the suspension.

“The Authority is aware of pending cases of refunds. We called the airline to a meeting last week, and we have given them an ultimatum to present a proper plan for these refunds. We have also given them a list of all requests for refunds that were reported to the NCAA,” Achimugu told EQ.

READ ALSO: Dana Air Owes Another Civil Servant N129,600 After Cancelling April Flight

“However, even before the meeting, the airline has been paying refunds, albeit slowly, to some passengers.”

On Wednesday, Bunmi Omotesho, an Abuja civil servant, received N274,690, three days after EQ published a report on the same issue

A day after Omotesho’s refund was processed, EQ also reported how Henry Babatunde got his N129,600 refund from Dana Air, five days after EQ’s publication.
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