A female cabin crew member of Air Peace, Victory Maduneme, has given the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) a 72-hour ultimatum to withdraw a drug-related allegation made against her or face legal action.
Maduneme made this known during an emotional interview on Arise Television on Friday, where she strongly denied ever using drugs and described the accusation as a “defamation of character”.
According to her, she was shocked when NSIB claimed she tested positive for marijuana, a claim she says has now damaged her image in the aviation industry.
“I was shocked when I was given a test result that said I had marijuana in my system,” she said during the interview. “I was told marijuana stays in the system for 90 days, but when they carried out the follow-up test, I tested negative.”
She argued that the conflicting test results prove that the original allegation was either false or mishandled.
Maduneme also expressed fears that the accusation could ruin her career permanently, especially in the highly sensitive aviation sector where drug use is a serious offence.
“If not for the kindness of my chairman, they would have sacked me and blacklisted me. And once that is done, no airline in the world will hire me, because now they’ve painted me as this person that had drugs in her system,” she said.
She accused NSIB of possibly using her as a scapegoat in what she called a wider attempt to discredit Air Peace.
“If NSIB is doing a smear campaign against the airline, it should keep innocent people out of it,” she said. “This is really very bad. And if in the next 72 hours NSIB does not come and retract whatever it has said against me, then I think we should sue.”
The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) is the agency responsible for investigating serious incidents and accidents involving aircraft, trains, and other transport systems in Nigeria.
The bureau is currently investigating a number of aviation-related incidents, including the July 13 landing scare involving an Air Peace aircraft at Port Harcourt International Airport.
While it is not yet clear how Maduneme’s case is connected to these investigations, her public call for an apology adds a fresh twist to the controversies surrounding recent aviation safety concerns.
As of the time of filing this report, the NSIB has not issued any public response to Maduneme’s statement.
Meanwhile, Nigerians on social media have begun to weigh in, with many calling for an independent review of the case to protect workers from wrongful accusations.
