Comfort Emmanson has been charged with attacking airline authorities on an Ibom Air aircraft from Uyo to Lagos and is currently being held in custody at the Kirikiri Correctional Center in Lagos.
On Monday, Tunde Moshood, Special Adviser on Media and Communications to the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN, announced the development in a post on the minister’s official X handle.
“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,” Moshood said.
His remarks coincide with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s, it cautions that passengers who engage in disruptive behavior, which has been increasing in Nigerian airports, will face harsher enforcement measures.
In a widely shared video, Emmanson, who was traveling from Uyo to Lagos, was seen repeatedly slapping a purser of Ibom Aircraft after allegedly being instructed to turn off her phone before to takeoff.
After the customer was discovered attacking a member of the airline’s crew, the airline issued a statement on Monday prohibiting her from traveling with the carrier.
According to Ibom Air, the incident started when Emmanson disregarded safety protocols that required passengers to turn off their cell phones before to takeoff from Uyo.
The airline claims that a vocal outburst broke out after a fellow traveler sitting next to her turned off the phone. When Emmanson arrived in Lagos, the carrier claimed, she approached the purser, who had previously told her to turn off her phone and hit her.
It further claimed that the passenger had “an intention to damage and ground the aircraft” when they tried to take a fire extinguisher by force and use it as a weapon.
Her actions presented a major risk to the security of its staff, passengers, and aircraft, Ibom Air continued.
This comes after a similar incident occurred recently when King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, a musician from Fuji who goes by the names KWAM 1 or K1, tried to prevent a ValueJet plane from taking off after he had disembarked.
