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- Safiu Kehinde
Ibom Air passenger, Comfort Emmanson, has finally broken silence days after going viral over her clash with a hostess of the Nigerian local airline.
Emmanson had last week come under spotlight following the viral video of her physically assaulting an Ibom Air hostess at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.
Her conduct further triggered controversies and mixed reactions following the release of the video where she was stripped naked while being dragged out of the plane.
In the wake of the incident which occurred on Sunday 10th of August, Emmanson was arraigned and remanded in Kirikiri prison.
Subsequent development would see the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) slamming a lifetime ban on he with Ibom Air filing a lawsuit against the unruly passenger.
However, the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, intervened after preliminary investigation.
Keyamo ordered her release from custody while also directing the withdrawal of every case filed against her.
The Minister also directed the Airline operators to lift the lifetime ban imposed on the Ibom Air passenger.
Shortly after release, Emmanson, in a post on her Instagram handle vowed to narrate her side of the story while expressing her gratitude to those who supported her.
The now infamous passenger finally opened up on the incident in a video shared on X yesterday.
As captured in the video, she recounted how her inability to turn off her phone had led to the whole fracas between her and the air hostess se identified as Juliana.
“On the 10th of August on Sunday, I boarded a flight from Uyo to Lagos. When we were inside the aircraft, the normal procedure happened. The lady, Juliana, was telling everybody from the front seat and coming to the back, because I was at the back. When she was coming forward, I was putting my phone on flight mode, but she said no that I have to put it off. I was with two phones.
“So, I told her that one of my phones is faulty that the power button is bad. She said I can put off my phone without the power button. She said I should go to my settings.
“While she was telling me to go to my settings and go to the general, the man by right now helped me and put one of the phones off while we were struggling with the other one that has the power button issue. She said that I should go to the general which I did.
“Before that I said please can you assist me to spell general? She said she cannot touch my phone, she can never touch my phone, children of nowadays. So, I now turned to the guy that helped turned off the other phone. I told him please can you assist me and spell general?
“The guy now collected my phone and typed general of the phone. When collected it and showed her that I am here now, the face she was even giving me was not even encouraging.
“I had to plead with the same guy again on my right that please do you know how to help me off it from here? He now said okay no problem and helped me off it eventually. I put the two phones where they were supposed to be, and I told her that they have turned off my phone. So, when she wanted to leave, she said ‘we will see’. I didn’t take that from her because I have eventually turned off my phone. That was it.
“When we landed in Lagos and everybody was going out of the aircraft, I was pressed, and I went to pee. Going to the toilet, somebody was already inside, and I had to wait for the person to come out. When the person eventually came out, I went inside and quickly came out. I could not stay too much in the toilet because it was small.
“Coming outside, everybody has already left. So, I went to pick my stuff and leave. Going out of the aircraft, this lady, Juliana stopped me. I asked her why are you stopping me from going out of the aircraft? Every other person has left. She didn’t say anything. She was staring at my with the same bad eye. That was when I remembered that this is the same person that was instructing me to put off my phone which I eventually did.
“She didn’t say anything. She was just staring at me with the bad eye. That was when I put on my phone and started recorded while she is backing me. I told her please Madam let me pass. She didn’t answer me. She ignored me. After that, I picked my phone and that was she noticed that I was videoing her. She now pushed me inside the aircraft back and dragged my frontal. In the process of her dragging my gold necklace with my clothe, my phones went down and broke.
“I was like “why did you do that? Why did you break my phone and dragged my frontal?”
“You know how frontal can be, it’s so painful. So, the pain of doing that to me, that was when I went to poke her. God knows that I can never go and poke an elderly woman, somebody that is old enough to be my Mum. It was the pain she inflicted on me, the frontal pain and dragging my gold and everything, that was the anger. I was so angry and asked her why did you do that in the trending video that they posted.
“You dragged my frontal wig and called me a prostitute in the process. No! I just had to ask her that why did you do that? And that was I poked her in the video. While on that, those guys came into the aircraft and surrounded me. I was like why? And that was when they dragged me outside.
“And in the process, she now like dragged my clothe and the clothe was pinned on me because it was pinafore. That was my inner. The pain of dragging me because it wounded me inside.
“The pain and everything, I was just trying to help myself while they drag me. I was trying to cover myself as my body was out there and they were videoing. I was even looking for a way to cover it and some of them were like trying to touch me. I was trying to cover myself and all of them were trying to do video. Cameras everywhere.” She said.
Further expressing her shock with the conduct of the airport officials who were allegedly all recording her she attempted to cover up, Comfort disclosed her turmoil since the incident.
She expressed concern over its impact on her career as a Real Estate agent as well as her future.
“I was surprised because I never expected that like tearing my clothes and videoing everything. My naked body outside and the pain. It was so much for one person to bear. It was so much on me that I could not hold myself again. I was so angry and started asking why would you do that to me.
“Why would you do this to me and still videoed me and put it out. The trauma is so much. As I’m talking to you right now, I cannot go out again because my body is out there. People already know that this is the person. They know me. I’m ashamed to go out because my body is out there. Some people have even used it to make sticker. That was what happened inside the aircraft before I poked her. She already inflicted pain on me which I could not bear it.
“Right now, I don’t even know how I want to start going for work interview. I’m into real estate. Imagine me trying to sell a house or advertise a house or trying to bring a client to buy a house and they are looking at my body. How do I even face them knowing that my body is out there?
“How will face them knowing that my whole body is out there? How do I go for business. Imagine me going for business and somebody is looking, or my unborn kids coming to see or a man that will marry me seeing that. My reputation.
“The reason why I have not come out to say y part of the story is because I was still on treatment. I’m trying to round up my treatment. It was even like a big deal. I never expected that the incident of offing of phone which I was trying to.
“Not like I was telling her no while she said I should off the phone. I never know that it will come out like this, seeing my body outside. People were even making mockery of me on Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook. I don’t know how I will go from here and I really want to continue my normal lifestyle. People that know me knows that I am not really a social media person.” She added.