Victory Maduneme, a cabin crew member at Air Peace, has spoken out about what she believes is a false drug test result shared by the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB). She says this is part of a plan to damage her reputation.
Maduneme said the drug test happened after a runway incident involving an Air Peace flight on July 13 at the Port Harcourt International Airport.
In an interview on Arise TV, she explained that once the flight landed, investigators came on board and took biological samples from the crew members.
“On July 13, after landing, the NSIB came for their investigation. Five hours later, they asked us to go into a room where they collected our blood and urine samples,” she said.
Maduneme was surprised that they didn’t get the test results right away, as is usually done in the aviation industry. “Normally, drug and alcohol test results come within hours or even minutes. But we didn’t get anything that day. About 10 days later, I was called by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority to collect a letter. I was shocked by what I saw in the result,” she said.
After getting the letter, she immediately went to a doctor to check and challenge the result. She was sent to a certified clinic for a second test. “I met with the doctor, and he explained that marijuana stays in the body for up to 90 days. I told him I wanted to do the test immediately. The results came back, and everything was negative,” she said.
She questioned why NSIB didn’t inform Air Peace right away if the original test showed drugs in her system. “If I really had marijuana in my system, shouldn’t they have told my airline and stopped me from flying? That would be the right thing to do. But they didn’t say anything until two months later,” she said.
Maduneme accused the NSIB of trying to destroy her career and damage Air Peace’s reputation. “If they want to attack the airline, they shouldn’t involve innocent staff. If not for my chairman’s support, I would’ve been fired and blacklisted. And once that happens, no airline in the world would hire me because they think I use drugs,” she said sadly.
She warned that she would take legal action if the NSIB didn’t clear her name within 72 hours. “If they don’t correct what they said in the next 72 hours, then I will take them to court. This is defamation of character,” she said firmly.
