A passenger accused of assaulting crew members of Ibom Air and a co-passenger, Comfort Emmanson, has been remanded in a Correctional Centre in Lagos.
Emmanson had reportedly attacked her victims on Sunday upon arriving at the Lagos airport from Uyo after the crew complained about her refusal to switch off her phone before take-off.
She was said to have stepped on her fellow passenger, forcefully removed her wig and eyeglasses and thrown them on the floor.
She was also accused of slapping cabin crew members who tried to intervene and attempting to use one of the fire extinguishers on the aircraft as a weapon. Still, she was stopped by airport security officials who handed her over to the police.
The development had led to Ibom Air banning Emmanson from flying its aircraft.
In a statement on Monday, Ibom Air said the passenger had been handed over to the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), which banned her from flying on any of its aircraft.
She was later charged and sent to a Correctional Centre in Lagos.
Confirming the development in a post on his official X handle on Monday, Tunde Moshood, Special Adviser on Media and Communications to the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN, said Emmanson had been charged and remanded in Kirikiri for her unruly behaviour.
He wrote, “The more reason the flying public should be more careful, the unruly passenger on the Uyo–Lagos bound Ibom Air, Miss Comfort Emmanson, has been charged to court and she’s now cooling off in Kirikiri.”
However, while confirming the indefinite flight ban on unruly passengers (both local and international), the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, condemned the release of evidence containing indecent exposure of Comfort Emmanson.
He said, “We also note the scuffle between the unruly passenger and ground personnel before she was eventually subdued. This was because of her uncooperative attitude. Whilst we support the filming of her recalcitrant behaviour as evidence to prosecute her, what is deplorable is to release such evidence containing indecent exposure to the public to ridicule her.
“That is unacceptable to us. We will not fold our arms and tolerate the debasing of womanhood. I have therefore directed that whoever released that part of the video containing the indecent exposure amongst the staff should be singled out and adequately sanctioned,” Keyamo said.
In a statement on his X handle on Monday, the minister also directed a joint security meeting between relevant agencies next week for better coordination of security measures in such situations.
Meanwhile, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) and former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, has described the “unfortunate, dishonourable drama” witnessed in Ibom Air.
In his official X handle, Obi said, “The incident brought to the fore the double standards in our lives and the inadequacies of our various security operatives in acting decently and civilisedly.”
“I want to start by sincerely apologising to the Ibom Air crew who Miss Comfort Emmanson assaulted. We must learn and uphold good conduct, an accurate measure of success and decent living as a society.
“However, I must equally strongly condemn the dehumanising treatment meted out to this young woman. Stripping her publicly was not only unnecessary but also represents the height of rascality and abuse by our agencies. It is unacceptable that she was hurriedly taken to court and remanded, while someone who visibly held a plane from taking off and put hundreds of lives at risk is still at large, with government agencies and some state officials speaking up for him to be forgiven.
“This case is not just about one young woman but the double standards that poison our justice system. Justice in Nigeria must never be about who is poor or powerless versus who has influence or access to government officials,” Obi said.
