Ibom Air Saga: I Was Assaulted, Stripped, Traumatised, Says Emmanson

·    Wishes for redemption, regaining dignity, leaves the air hostess to God  

·    Father demands compensation, says airline ruined family’s image

Chiemelie Ezeobi and Wale Igbintade

Days after she was released from Kirikiri Prison in Lagos over an altercation on-board an Ibom Air aircraft, Comfort Emmanson, yesterday, opened up on her ordeal.

Emmanson maintained that she was assaulted, stripped, and traumatised by a member of Ibom Air’s cabin crew following a disagreement over an instruction to switch off her phone.

In a video she posted on her instagram account soft_commy, Emmanson, who had a drip line on her hand, said during a flight from Uyo to Lagos, she had initially complied with the airline’s instruction to turn off her phone but encountered difficulties with one of her devices.

She said, “One of their air hostesses, her name is Juliana, said I should put off my phone. I told her that one of my phones was off already, I brought out the other one and showed her that the power button is bad.

“She said I can turn off my phone without the power button. I told her okay, can you help me? She said she will not touch my phone. I told her if you can’t touch my phone, help me to spell general. She refused to spell it for me.

“I tried to put it off but it was not going. The passenger that was sitting close to me was seeing what was happening. He told me he was an engineer. He said, give me your phone. He helped me, both phones were switched off.”

The lady at the centre of the aviation episode that shook the whole industry and raised a lot of questions said she was surprised when the situation escalated after the plane landed in Lagos.

According to her, “When we landed in Lagos, I sat down for everyone to go down first. After everyone had gone, I stood up to ease myself in the toilet before going down. I went to the toilet, came out and was about to go out. Juliana just blocked me, she said I will not go out. I asked her why. She did not answer me.

“I begged her, I said please let me pass. She did not answer me. She was just looking at me with a bad face. I told her to let me go. She said no. She was still standing; she did not allow me to go.

“I saw that she was not saying anything. I took my phone and started recording what was happening. She now pushed me back inside the aircraft. She held me, dragged my frontal hair, dragged my clothes, dragged the gold on my neck. My phone fell down in the process and broke.

“So I said, why did you do that? Why did you break my phone, drag my frontal? The pain of removing my frontal, you know how frontal can be when you install it, and it is forcibly dragged. It is so painful.

“That was when I poked her. God knows that I can never go and poke an elderly woman, somebody old enough to be my mum. For what? Poke her? It was the pain she inflicted on me — the frontal pain, dragging my gold, everything falling to the floor. I was so angry; I could not hold it. That was why I was asking her, why did you do that?

“In the video they posted, I was asking, why did you do that? She was dragging my frontal wig, dragging me, calling me a prostitute in the process. I was just asking her; why did you do that? Although I poked her in the video, it was because of the pain.”

Pulling up the frontal hair and the broken neck chain, which she alleged got damaged after it was pulled off her by the said air hostess, Emmanson said she was further dehumanised after the security came in.

Recounting how her cloth was torn, she said, “My body was outside. I was trying to cover myself, and they were videoing. Cameras were everywhere. Tearing my clothes and videoing everything, my naked body outside, the pain was too much for one person to bear.

“While all this was happening, some people came inside the aircraft and started surrounding me. They dragged me outside. You saw how they dragged me in the video. In the process, she dragged my clothes. It was painful. My inner body was exposed, and it wounded me inside.

“The pain of dragging it, the frontal pain, the wounds inside, I was just trying to cover myself while they were dragging me out. My body was out there, and they were videoing. My body was out; I was looking for where to cover myself. Some of them tried to touch me. I was covering myself, but they were surrounding me with cameras everywhere.

“I was surprised. Tearing my clothes, videoing everything, my body outside, my naked body outside. The pain was too much for one person to bear. I could not hold myself. I was angry, asking them, why would you do that to me? Why would you video me and put it out there?

“The trauma is too much. As I am talking to you now, I cannot go out again because my body is out there. People know me. Some have even used it to make a sticker. I am ashamed to go out. How do I face people, clients, or even my unborn children seeing my body online? How do I face a man that will marry me knowing my reputation?

“That is why I did not come out earlier to say my part of the story. I was still undergoing treatment. As you can see, I am still trying to round off my treatment. That is why I could not come out to say what happened.”

Although she was mum on any plans for compensation, she said, “Right now, I do not know how to start again, to look for work or face business. I am into real estate. Imagine me going to sell a house and people are looking at my body, knowing it is out there.

“I want to continue my life, my normal lifestyle. People who know me know I am not really a social media person. I do not know how to face my family, my clients, the people that saw the video. It is so embarrassing.

“So this is my part of the story. This is all that happened inside the aircraft. I am happy I am strong enough now to talk. Please, this is what happened. I am not a troublesome person. I am not a nuisance. People who know me in real life know the kind of person I am.

“So please, this is what happened. I am happy I have come out to tell people what happened. I will round off my treatment, recover fully from everything and move forward with my normal lifestyle.”

However, in a video making the rounds on social media, Emmanson’s visibly distraught father, who condemned the incident, demanded compensation from Ibom Air for what he described as a humiliating assault on his daughter and their family.

He said, “How can an Ibom Air hostess strip my daughter naked just because of a little misunderstanding on their plane and tarnish our image? Is it because I don’t have money or anybody in power?”

He added, “The first day I saw the video, I was so provoked. All the pains I went through to send my child to school. I don’t know why it happened that way. They have rubbished our image. I don’t feel like eating or doing anything. 

“She didn’t steal, just over a minor argument. They showed the whole world my child’s nakedness. How did the video come out in public?”

But Emmanson late last night clarified that she had left the matter and the air hostess to God, as she wished for redemption and to regain her dignity.

She further debunked the political angle the incident took, stressing, “I leave the story of what happened between me and Juliana Edward, the air hostess, before the video that was published on social media, to God and He will judge us both accordingly.

“As I have stated in the video above, I only wish for redemption and to regain whatever dignity I have left as a woman. 

“Whatever reaction I had after being dragged down from the plane came from a place of deep pain. My swimsuit was dragged when I was being stripped naked. It was clipped beneath my private parts. Imagine the pain as a woman, then tell me how you would react while going through such an ordeal.”

Stressing that she was not crazy or wayward, as had been insinuated, she also apologised for her behaviour, adding that it was a lesson and a turning point for her as a woman and a human being.