A passenger on Ibom Air Plane, Ms. Comfort Emmanson, has narrated her ordeal following an airport incident that led to her arrest and detention.
DAILY GIST recalls that Comfort was accused of unruly behaviour with crew and security guards of Ibom Air while boarding a flight.
She was consequently arraigned in court and remanded in Kirikiri prison.
However, her release came on Wednesday after an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court in Ogba, Lagos, struck out the five-count charge against her.
Presiding Magistrate Olanrewaju Salami freed her following a request by the police to withdraw the case.
In a detailed statement shared on Facebook, Emmanson denied acting in an unruly manner and insisted that the incident stemmed from a misunderstanding over her faulty phone. She claimed she had peacefully boarded the flight from Uyo to Lagos and explained to the cabin crew that her phone’s power button was defective, offering to hand it over if they wished to switch it off themselves.
According to her account, while one flight attendant spoke politely, another allegedly addressed her in a harsh tone, warning her to “obey if you don’t want trouble.” Emmanson said a fellow passenger eventually helped turn off the phone, but she alleged the same crew member continued to glare at her aggressively throughout the flight.
She maintained that she did not raise her voice, abuse, or threaten any member of staff. Upon landing, she claimed the attendant confronted her again, accused her of making threats, and called in security. Emmanson said she pleaded with authorities to review videos recorded by other passengers to verify her innocence, but her appeals were ignored.
“I was dragged off the aircraft like a criminal and taken straight into detention,” she stated, adding that an airline manager later presented what she described as a “false narrative,” alleging she endangered the flight.
Emmanson expressed disappointment over what she called abuse of authority but said she has forgiven everyone involved. “Everything I went through started from a faulty phone power button and a hostess who chose to intimidate me instead of helping,” she said, thanking supporters who prayed and advocated for her release.
In a new video she posted on Sunday via Instagram, Comfort stressed that the incident left her traumatised and ruined her reputation.
She Emmanson recounted that she was stopped from leaving the aircraft after the Lagos-bound flight landed on August 10, 2025.
She alleged that the flight attendant who earlier insisted she switch off her mobile phones dragged her back into the plane, tore at her hair, clothes and jewellery, and broke her phones.
She said she was then stripped partially naked as other staff and bystanders recorded her while mocking her.
According to her, being exposed in such a manner and seeing the videos shared online have caused her deep emotional pain.
She lamented that the recordings have been turned into social media content and WhatsApp stickers, leaving her too ashamed to face clients in her real estate business.
She added that the experience has made her fear for her future relationships and family life, as her body has been displayed publicly.
She partly said, “Going out of the aircraft, this lady Juliana stopped me. I asked her, why did you stop me? Why are you stopping me from going out of the aircraft? Everybody had left so I needed to go out. She didn’t say anything to me, she was just staring at me with the same bad eye. That was when I remembered that this was the same person instructing me to put off my phone. That was when I started recording and then she backed the person facing me and I told her to let me pass but she didn’t answer me, she ignored me.
“When she noticed I was making a video, she now pulled me back inside the aircraft and dragged my frontal, dragged my gold from my neck, my clothes, and my phones. The phone broke. The pain of doing that to me was when I went to poke her.”
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