‘I Can’t Go Out Again, My N∆ked Body Used As Stickers’ –Comfort Emmerson On Being Dragged During Ibom Air Inc!dent
‘I Can’t Go Out Again, My Naked Body Used As Stickers’ –Comfort Emmerson On Being Dragged During Ibom Air Incident
Emmanson said the attendant became hostile even after she sought help from a fellow passenger to comply. She recalled that the woman eventually warned her: “You will see.”
Comfort Emmanson, an Ibom Air passenger who was arrested after an altercation with a flight attendant on a Uyo–Lagos flight, has said she can no longer go out or live freely as a result of the humiliation she suffered when her clothes were torn and her body exposed during the incident.
The young woman explained that the ordeal had left her traumatised and ashamed, especially after videos of the scuffle went viral online. She added that some people had even turned her exposed image into internet stickers, worsening her distress.
Before recounting the events that led to the confrontation, Emmanson, in a viral video, first thanked God and those who supported her during her detention.
She said, “I want to come out fully to appreciate God Almighty and everyone that stood by me, that fought for me when I was in prison. When I came out, the love I saw, the support I got from people, I was never expecting it.
“For a commoner like me, you fought for me, you stood by me. I want to appreciate you all. God Almighty will bless you.”
She then narrated how the confrontation began during the flight on Sunday, August 10, when a female staff member of Ibom Air asked her to switch off her phones. According to her, one of the devices had a faulty power button and required assistance from another passenger to be turned off.
“So on Sunday, August 10, 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, coming to the back, because I was at the back.
“So she came to me, when she was coming forward, she came and I was putting my phone on flight mode, but she said no, that I had to put it off. So I told her that one of my phones – because I was with two phones – was faulty, the phone was bad. The power button was bad, so I showed her that the power button was bad. She said I could put off my phone without the power button.”
Emmanson said the attendant became hostile even after she sought help from a fellow passenger to comply. She recalled that the woman eventually warned her: “You will see.”
“I did not take that to heart because I had already turned off my phone, which I had a problem with turning off,” she said.
She explained that the matter escalated after the flight landed in Lagos, when she attempted to leave the aircraft but was stopped by the same flight attendant.
She said, “Upon coming outside, everybody on the aircraft already left. I had to rush, carry my stuff and move to rush out of the aircraft. So 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, and I needed to go out.’
“She didn’t say anything to me. She was just like staring at me with the same bad eye, and that was when I remembered that was the same person who instructed me to put off my phone, which I eventually did.”
According to Emmanson, she began recording on her phone at that point, but the crew member allegedly attacked her, removing her wig, clothes, and jewellery and breaking her phone in the process.
“She now pushed me inside the aircraft back, dragged my frontal. She dragged the frontal, and in the process of dragging my clothes, my gold from neck, my phone and everything went down and broke. The phone broke. So I was like: ‘Why did you do that? Why did you break my phone and drag my frontal?” she said.
She admitted she poked the attendant in anger, insisting it was a reaction to the pain she had suffered.
“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 that made me poke her. It was out of anger. I was so angry. I could not even like hold it,” she said.
The young woman further alleged that when security operatives were called in, she was dragged outside the aircraft, leaving her half-naked while passengers filmed her ordeal.
She said, “My body was out there, and then they were making videos. While my body was out, I was looking for ways to cover it. Some of them were trying to like touch me, and I was trying to cover myself. All of them surrounded me with cameras everywhere.
“I was surprised because I never expected that my clothes would be torn, and they would make a video of everything. My body outside, my naked body outside plus the pain. It was so much for me, and I could not hold myself again.”
Emmanson lamented that the widespread circulation of the video had destroyed her reputation and affected her livelihood.
She said, “The trauma is too much on me right now because, as I am talking to you now, I cannot even go out again because my body is out there. I am ashamed of going out because my body is out there. Some people have even used the video to make stickers.
“I am into real estate. Imagine me going to sell a house or advertise a house or try to bring a client to buy a house now, and they are looking at my body. How do I even face them knowing that my body is out there?”
She said the humiliation had kept her indoors and subjected her to mockery on social media platforms.
“People are even making mockery of me. On Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, my body is out there. So I don’t know how I will go from here. I really want to continue my life, my normal lifestyle. People who know me know that I am not really a social media person. It is so embarrassing,” she said.
SaharaReporters had earlier reported that Emmanson was arrested at the Lagos airport after the altercation and charged before a magistrate’s court.
She was later granted bail. Videos of her being dragged with torn clothes went viral, sparking outrage and raising questions about the conduct of Ibom Air staff and security officials.
