Passenger Comfort Emmanson, who was involved in the contentious Ibom Air incident, has provided her account of what transpired before a Lagos court arrested, charged, and ultimately released her.
In a tearful video posted to Instagram, the real estate consultant called the flight from Uyo to Lagos on August 10 “traumatic” and thanked everyone who helped her get through the ordeal.
She claimed that Juliana, a flight attendant, started the altercation by insisting that she turn off her phone instead of putting it in flight mode.
Comfort explained, “I showed her the phone and told her the power button was bad. She said I could still switch it off through the settings. With the help of a fellow passenger, I eventually managed to switch off both phones”
When they landed in Lagos, the argument got more heated. The same attendant, Emmanson said, pushed her, pulled her wig, ripped her clothes, and broke her necklace after preventing her from leaving the aircraft.
She recounted, “When we landed in Lagos, everybody was getting out of the aircraft. I went to pee. Coming outside, everybody had already left. I had to rush, carry my stuff and move to rush out of the aircraft. Going out of the aircraft, this lady, Juliana, stopped me and I asked her, ‘Why did you stop me?’ ‘Why are you stopping me from going out of the aircraft? Everybody has left. So I need to go out.’
“She didn’t say anything to me. She stared at me with a bad eye. I picked up my phone and started recording. That was when she pushed me back inside the aircraft, dragged my wig frontal, tore my clothes and broke my necklace. The pain was unbearable.
“They dragged me outside. My body was out there, and then they videoed me in the process. My body was out. I was looking for where to cover it. All of them, the surroundings like videos, cameras everywhere. I was surprised because I never expected that, like tearing my clothes and videoing everything.
“My body outside, my naked body outside, plus the pain. No, it was so much for one person to bear. I started asking them, ‘Why would you do that to me?’ Why would you do this to me? And still like video me again and still put it out there”
Comfort Emmanson insisted that she only reacted after being attacked and that she never provoked the crew member. “I God knows I would never poke an elderly woman old enough to be my mother. She clarified, “It was the pain she inflicted on me, dragging my wig and stripping me in public, that made me react.”
She denounced what she described as “false narratives” about the incident in a follow-up statement, including assertions that her experience had political overtones.
She emphasized that she had always flown with Ibom Air in a calm manner and expressed regret for the incident, but she maintained that her actions were a response to the humiliation.
“I apologise about my behaviour. I am not crazy or wayward. My clothes were torn in a way that exposed me as a woman. I have never been in such a situation and I don’t wish it on anyone,” she wrote.
