Comfort Emmanson speaks on Ibom Air saga

Comfort Emmanson, the passenger accused of assaulting Ibom Air staff and security personnel, has finally broken her silence.

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PREMIUM TIMES reported that she boarded the airline’s flight from Uyo to Lagos, where she allegedly attacked a flight attendant and clashed with airport officials at the airport.

The alleged assault led to her arraignment before the Ikeja Magistrates’ Court on criminal charges and subsequent remand at the Kirikiri Correctional Centre in Lagos State.

She later regained freedom after the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, directed the airline to withdraw its complaint against her.

Upon her release, Ms Emmanson admitted she was in pain, undergoing treatment, and promised to share her side of the story once she regained strength.

However, in a video and screenshots she posted on her Instagram page on Sunday, Ms Emmanson, who is into real estate, revealed that the confrontation started when the airline hostess, Juliana Edwards, asked her to switch off her mobile phone.

Her story

She narrated: “On Sunday, 10th August, I boarded a flight from Uyo to Lagos. Once we were inside the aircraft, the normal procedure began. The lady, Juliana, was instructing passengers from the front seats to switch off their phones. When she got to me, I was struggling to turn off my phone. I had two phones, and one of them was faulty, the power button was bad. So, I showed her that the power button was not working. She said I should go to my settings, I went to my settings, she said, go to your general. So, while trying to do that, the pressure from her, the man who was sitting on my right now helped me and turned one of the phones off, while we were struggling with the other one that had the power button issue.

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“I told her, please, can you assist me and spell general? She said she cannot touch my phone, saying that the children nowadays. So, I now turned to the guy who helped me turn off one of my phones. I told him, Please, can you assist me and spell general? So, the guy now collected my phone and showed me, spelt, typed general. I went to her to tell her this is general, but the face that she gave me was not even encouraging. I had to click with the same guy and he helped me off the phone eventually and I put them where they’re supposed to be on the aircraft.”

You’ll see

Ms Emmanson alleged that after she switched off the phones and approached Ms Edwards, the latter threatened her.

“She said, ‘You will see.’ I didn’t take that to heart because I had already switched off my phone, which I was having issues with. When we landed in Lagos, everyone was disembarking from the aircraft. I was stressed and went to use the toilet. Someone was already inside, so I had to wait. When the person eventually came out, I went in, relieved myself, and then came out.

“I couldn’t stay long in the toilet because it was so small and uncomfortable. I rushed, finished quickly, tidied myself up, and stepped out. By the time I came out, everyone had already left. I had to hurry, pick up my things, and rush out of the aircraft, but Juliana stopped me. I asked her, Why did you stop me? Why are you preventing me from leaving the aircraft? Everyone else has left, so I need to go out. She didn’t say anything to me,” she wrote.

According to her, despite her pleas, Ms Edwards refused to let her leave the aircraft and simply stared at her in silence.

Ms Emmanson added that it was at that moment she recalled the airline hostess was the same person.

“So, that was when I turned on my phone and started recording. That was when she backed me. I was just like, ‘Please, madam, let me pass.’ She didn’t answer me; she ignored me. After the video, I picked up my phone. When I did, that was when she noticed I was recording her. She then pushed me back into the aircraft, dragged my frontal, pulled my gold chain from my neck along with my clothes and, in the process, my phone and everything else fell and broke. I was like, ‘No, why did you do that? Why did you break my phone, drag my frontal?’

“It was the pain she caused me that made me poke her. God knows I could never poke an elderly woman, someone old enough to be my mum. For what? To poke her? No. It was the pain she inflicted on me, the frontal pain, dragging my gold, everything falling on the floor, that was the anger. I was so angry, I couldn’t even hold it. That was why I was asking her, ‘Why did you do that?’ And in the video, she was calling me a prostitute. No, I just had to ask her, and that was why I poked her in the video,” she said.

Dragging

She further revealed that, following the confrontation, security operatives arrived and forcibly dragged her out of the aircraft without first establishing what had transpired.

“Those guys came inside the aircraft, surrounded me, and dragged me outside. You saw how they dragged me in the video, that was what happened. In the process of dragging me out, Juliana pulled at my clothes, and because they were pinned on me, the force caused me so much pain and even injured me internally. I was only trying to protect myself. When they dragged me out, I was struggling to cover myself because my body was exposed. And then, they were recording the whole process.

“My body was out there; I was desperately trying to cover up, while some of them even tried to touch me. I had to defend myself. I was shocked. I never expected that, tearing my clothes, exposing my body, recording me, and then posting it. It was too much for one person to bear, far more than I could handle. I was so angry and kept asking them, ‘Why would you do this to me? Why would you record me?’”

She explained that the circulation of her nude video had left her deeply traumatised, making it difficult for her to step outside.

She added that she now feels too ashamed to even go to work, as her body has been exposed publicly and turned into a sticker.

“I’m into real estate, imagine me going to sell a house, or advertise a house, or try to bring a client to buy a house and they are looking at my body online, how do I even face them, knowing that my body is out there?” Ms Emmanson lamented.

She remarked that she had flown with Ibom Air for years without ever encountering such an experience.

However, she expressed gratitude to Nigerians who stood by her during the incident.