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  • Ibom Air, Akwa United sign N200m sponsorship deal

    Ibom Air, Akwa United sign N200m sponsorship deal

    Bassey Anthony

    Ibom Air has signed a N200 million strategic sponsorship agreement with Akwa United Football Club.

    With the deal, the state airline has become the team’s official sponsor for the next two years.

    Stakeholders have described it as a major boost for sports development and private sector involvement in Akwa Ibom State.

    The deal, signed last Thursday at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo, will see Ibom Air contribute both cash and in-kind support, with 50 percent of the sponsorship delivered through services and logistics.

    Speaking at the ceremony, Acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Ibom Air, Mr. George Uriesi, said the partnership underscores the airline’s commitment to community development through sports, health and education.

     “Akwa United is a team with a proud history currently in a rebuilding phase. We want to support their resurgence and help them return to the top of Nigerian football. This partnership reflects our belief in the power of sports to inspire young people and unite our state,” Uriesi said.

    Chairman of Akwa United FC, Mr. Joseph Eno, described the sponsorship as timely and morale-boosting for the club’s players and technical crew.

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     “This support comes at a crucial moment as we restructure and strive to regain our competitive strength. Wearing the Ibom Air brand reminds us that we represent excellence, and we must live up to it,” he said.

    Commissioner for Sports, Elder Paul Bassey, praised the collaboration as a fulfilment of the Umo Eno administration’s ARISE Agenda, which encourages private sector participation in sports.

     “This is a dream come true. Bringing Akwa United and Ibom Air together is a visionary step. Beyond supporting our club, we are setting a foundation for sports in Akwa Ibom to meet global standards,” he added.

    The event also featured the unveiling of Akwa United’s new jersey bearing the Ibom Air logo and the inauguration of working committees to manage the partnership.

    Our Correspondent reports that; Akwa United, winners of the 2021 Nigeria Premier Football League and twice FA Cup champions, was founded in 1997 and remains one of the state’s flagship sporting institutions.

    The partnership is expected to strengthen the club’s financial stability, improve player welfare and enhance its competitiveness on the national and continental stage.

  • Ibom Air, Akwa United seal  ₦200m sponsorship deal

    Ibom Air, Akwa United seal  ₦200m sponsorship deal

    Ibom Air has signed a ₦200 million strategic sponsorship agreement with Akwa United Football Club.

    With the deal , the state airline has become the team’s official sponsor for the next two years.

    Stakeholders have described it as a major boost for sports development and private sector involvement in Akwa Ibom State.

    The deal, signed yesterday, 23rd October,  at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo, will see Ibom Air contribute both cash and  value in-kind support, with 50 percent of the sponsorship delivered through services and logistics.

    Speaking at the ceremony, Acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Ibom Air, Mr. George Uriesi, said the partnership underscores the airline’s commitment to community development through sports, health and education.

    Read Also: Agunechemba, Ibom Air and women victims

     “Akwa United is a team with a proud history currently in a rebuilding phase. We want to support their resurgence and help them return to the top of Nigerian football. This partnership reflects our belief in the power of sports to inspire young people and unite our state,” Uriesi said.

    Chairman of Akwa United FC, Mr. Joseph Eno, described the sponsorship as timely and morale-boosting for the club’s players and technical crew.

     “This support comes at a crucial moment as we restructure and strive to regain our competitive strength. Wearing the Ibom Air brand reminds us that we represent excellence, and we must live up to it,” he said.

    Commissioner for Sports, Elder Paul Bassey, praised the collaboration as a fulfilment of the Umo Eno administration’s ARISE Agenda, which encourages private sector participation in sports.

     “This is a dream come true. Bringing Akwa United and Ibom Air together is a visionary step. Beyond supporting our club, we are setting a foundation for sports in Akwa Ibom to meet global standards,” he added.

    The event also featured the unveiling of Akwa United’s new jersey bearing the Ibom Air logo and the inauguration of working committees to manage the partnership.

    Recall  that Akwa United, winners of the 2021 Nigeria Premier Football League and twice FA Cup winners, was founded in 1997 and remains one of the state’s flagship sporting institutions.

    The partnership is expected to strengthen the club’s financial stability, improve player welfare and enhance its competitiveness on the national and continental stage.

  • Agunechemba, Ibom Air and women victims

    Agunechemba, Ibom Air and women victims

    Unknown to the public, more than two weeks before Ibom Air made Comfort Emmanson famous by stripping her of her dignity in the name of enforcing aviation regulations, an even more sordid attack on another woman, a youth corps member, Jennifer Elohor, had unfolded in Oba, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra state, on July 23. Where Ms Emmanson was dragged from the Ibom Air plane and stripped naked on August 10, her body becoming public and lasting spectacle, Ms Elohor was not only severely beaten, she was stripped even more stark naked, videoed, and threatened with all manner of gender violence. In the August 10 affair, the country was both puzzled and horrified to hear aviation officials, airport security men, and airline cabin crew attempting to justify their action. Furthermore, the Aviation ministry had expected that by quickly dousing the controversy, further revelations on both the questionable tactics employed by officials to handle the crisis and the antecedents of the affair that appear to exonerate the victim of blame could be avoided. The last has obviously not been heard of the matter.

    But in Anambra State late July – and video evidence exists to confirm the sordidness of the affair – the state-owned Anambra State Vigilante Group, Agunechemba, took the law into their own hands, brutalised the youth corps member, threatened her, and traumatised her colleagues living in the same Corpers’ Lodge. The incident took place on July 23, but it was not until last week that the public became fully apprised of the incident. All the people, authorities and institutions which should have managed the incident and ensured justice and redress were too inured to the victim’s pain and societal morality and standards to be outraged. Governor Chukwuma Soludo uncharacteristically quibbled about compensations involving replacement of phone devices, and Agunechemba operatives suspended and under investigations, and victim’s family reluctant to press charges. His senior special assistant on internal security also waffled about the affair, indicted himself by emphasising that, after all, the incident took place in July, and concluded by saying that the eight offending operatives were under investigations. There was no outrage in his voice or in the responses he gave to the media.

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    Worse, the state police spokesman was tame in his answers to the media. He hinged the law enforcement agency’s pussyfooting on the reluctance by Ms Elohor’s family to press charges. There was no attempt to convince the public that the family in question was not being intimidated. And in the face of Prof. Soludo alluding to the eight Agunechemba operatives as bad eggs in an otherwise effective security outfit which has enabled the state to sleep well at night and helped Anambra to become one of the safest states in the country, it was not surprising that those who should have taken firm and immediate action to deal with the affront to civilisation in the state were lulled into complacency. It took the human rights community leading the battle cry, perhaps after viewing the appalling videos of the assault on the corps member, before the authorities in the state stirred themselves to say a thing or two.

    It is also shocking that the federal authorities, including the police and the NYSC in both Anambra and Abuja, took the matter quite tamely. Had they expressed enough outrage, the matter would have come to light much sooner, and both Anambra State and the state/federal police would have taken decisive actions to punish the errant Agunechemba operatives, take down the offending videos, and propose realistic and reasonable measures to ensure that there would be no reoccurrence anywhere in the country. The brutalisation of women by so-called public officials hiding under the guise of law enforcement, either on a plane or on land is becoming an epidemic. If it is to stop, the state and federal authorities must take much firmer stand and much sterner measures to curb the recurring malady. It was not until the human rights community sensitised the country to the Anambra affront before the state dismissed the eight operatives. State officials cannot defend the tardiness of investigations or the tameness with which they viewed the assault. Have they also become desensitised?

    The Aviation ministry and Anambra State need to revisit the outrages that occurred on their watch. They must be honest enough to admit that they misjudged the situations, allowed themselves to be distracted, empowered shoddy and prolonged investigations, and incompetently tried to downplay the assault on the women. Worse, they have done nothing to ensure that the nude videos of the victims were taken down from the Internet. The videos are still circulating. The Aviation ministry and Ibom Air, which needlessly dragged in the judiciary in the case involving Ms Emmanson, are having a rethink over how they handled the matter, but Anambra State and Agunechemba think that it was enough that they had dismissed the vigilance operatives and ordered their prosecution. No, it should go farther than that. They need to show believable outrage and reassure the public about the lessons they have learnt from the affair and what training and reforms they would embark on going forward. It should never be business as usual. What happened in Anambra last month is unfortunately one more solid argument against state police.

    More crucially, despite operating a federal constitution, to which the country pays lip service, the federal authorities have not quite shown more than a passing interest when things go horrifyingly wrong in some parts of the country, especially when it involves the right to dignity of defenceless women. If the NYSC in Anambra had paid closer attention to the mistreatment of their corps member, and had escalated the matter to Abuja with a decisive note indicating their outrage, it is inconceivable that it would have taken so many weeks before the erring operatives were dismissed or handed over to the police for prosecution. The debasement of womanhood that happened on Ibom Air and Anambra State in the past few weeks is a terrible embarrassment to Nigeria. Sadly, by their reluctant and hesitant approach to tackling the malaise of public mistreatment of women, officials have not demonstrated the right attitude to ensuring that the debasement would end soon.

  • Ibom Air infrations: NCAA meets Ibom Air team, Emmanson

    Ibom Air infrations: NCAA meets Ibom Air team, Emmanson

    As part efforts to probe and prevent future recurrence, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) team has met with Ibom Air hostess Julie Edwards and other members of the crew involved in the Comfort Emmanson incident.

    Ms. Emmanson was accompanied by her lawyer to the meeting, which held in Lagos.

    The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection of the NCAA, Michael Achimugu, gave the update via his official X handle @mikeachimugu01.

    The post reads: “Ibom Air Investigation: Yesterday in Abuja, the NCAA team met with Julie Edwards and other members of the crew involved in the Comfort Emanson incident as part of investigations into that event.

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    “The NCAA’s directorates of Aviation Security, Operations, Licensing, and Training Standards, Legal, and Consumer Protection are collaborating to ensure a proper conclusion to this investigation.

    “Later today, Comfort Emmanson, the passenger, would be meeting with the Authority. She is being accompanied by her lawyer.”

    In a separate post, Achimugu confirmed that the NCAA also met with Ms. Emmanson.

    “NCAA has held a meeting with Comfort Emanson, the Ibom Air passenger.”

    Speaking with The Nation on the development, Achimugu said: “We held separate meetings with both parties in Abuja and Lagos between yesterday (Wednesday) and today (Thursday) to understand what transpired to prevent future occurrences. They were asked questions and from what they told us, we still have some loose ends to tie.

    “The parties spoke from their perspectives and we have more work to do based on the information available to us. The investigation is ongoing because we want to understand what happened to avoid a repeat of such incident in the aviation sector and Nigeria as a whole”.

  • NCAA probes Comfort Emanson–Ibom Air altercation, meets crew in Abuja

    NCAA probes Comfort Emanson–Ibom Air altercation, meets crew in Abuja

    The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has launched a formal investigation into the recent altercation between passenger Comfort Emanson and members of the Ibom Air crew.

    As part of the inquiry, NCAA officials on Wednesday met in Abuja with Julie Edwards—identified as a key figure in the incident—alongside other crew members directly involved.

    This was disclosed by the NCAA’s publicist, Michael Achimugu, in a post on his X account on Thursday.

    “Yesterday in Abuja, the NCAA team met with Julie Edwards and other members of the crew involved in the Comfort Emanson incident as part of investigations into that event,” Achimugu stated.

    He added that the Authority’s directorates of Aviation Security, Operations, Licensing, Training Standards, Legal, and Consumer Protection are working jointly to ensure “a proper conclusion to this investigation.”

    The embattled passenger, Comfort Emanson, was also scheduled to appear before the Authority on Thursday, accompanied by her legal counsel.

    Read Also: Comfort Emmanson breaks silence after release from Kirikiri prison

    The controversy stems from a viral video showing Ibom Air officials manhandling Emanson after she allegedly attacked a flight attendant and clashed with airport staff during a flight from Uyo to Lagos.

    Her alleged assault led to an arraignment before the Ikeja Magistrates’ Court and temporary remand at the Kirikiri Correctional Centre before she was released. Her freedom followed the intervention of the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, who directed the airline to withdraw its complaint.

    The NCAA reiterated its commitment to professionalism and safety in Nigeria’s aviation sector, assuring the public that the investigation will be thorough and impartial.

  • How I was assaulted by Ibom Air hostess, by Emmanson

    How I was assaulted by Ibom Air hostess, by Emmanson

    Miss Comfort Emmanson, the young woman who was stripped of dignity, following an incident with the Ibom Air crew, has taken to social media to share her side of the story.

    In an Instagram post shared on her verified account @soft_commy, Emmanson alleged that hostess Julian Edwards forcefully pulled off her installed frontal wig, cut out her gold jewelry and broke her phone.

    She said it was the pain she suffered and seeing how she destroyed her personal items that led to poling her and demanding to know why she did that to her.

    According to Emmanson, the air hostess also called her a prostitute, adding that the issues started when the hostess refused her from alighting the plane.

    The young woman said she was traumatised by the ordeal, lamenting how her nudes have circulated across social media.

    Hear her: “…I want to first appreciate God Almighty and everyone that stood by me and fought for me when I was in prison. When I saw the love and support I saw, I was not expecting it for a commoner like me. I say God bless you all.

    “On August 10, I boarded a flight from Uyo to Lagos and the normal procedure was on. The lady Juliana was telling everyone to switch off their phones. When she came to me, I was struggling with my phone and she said I should put it off.

    “I showed her that one of the phones was bad. The button was bad and she said I can turn it off without the power button. I had two phones and so the man sitting beside me helped me to turn off the other one.

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    “While she was talking, she said I should go to my settings and to general…I pleaded with her to take the phone off it but she refused saying “children nowadays…”

    “I asked her to spell general for me but the way she looked at me and the pressure from her, so, I turned to the man who switched off the first one and begged him to help. The man spelt general and I went back to her but she looked at me with bad eye.

    “So, I turned to the man again and he helped me switch the second one off. I put both phones where they are supposed to be.’’

    “But before she left, she said “you will see”. I didn’t take it to heart since I have already switched my phones off.

    “So, when we arrived in Lagos, I rushed to the bathroom to pee. My seat was at the back. There was someone inside already and so I had to wait for the person to come out.

    “After the person left, I got in, peed and when I was done, I went out of the bathroom. I didn’t stay that long inside because it’s a small place and very discomforting. So, I went out and carried my things to leave but she blocked my way.

    “I kept telling her to leave the road for me to go as everyone had left the aircraft but she stood there looking at me with a bad eye (condescendingly).

    “That’s when I brought out my phone and did that short video to show how she was blocking my exit. When I brought out my phone, she then turned around showing me her back.

    “Then, she noticed I was recording her and she pushed me inside, dragged my frontal out, cut my gold chain in the process of tearing my cloth and also made my phones fall to the ground and break.

    “I was in pain, she inflicted so much pain on me. Anyone who has fixed a frontal knows how painful it is then imagine someone dragging it out forcefully. It was all these pains she caused me that made me poke her in the face, asking her why she did that to me?

    “God knows I wouldn’t poke an elderly woman, old enough to be my mother, for nothing. It’s the pain she inflicted on me and calling me a prostitute that’s why I was asking her why she did that.

    “Before I knew it, all those guys had come in and surrounded me. They were dragging me and the lady Juliana was the one who dragged my pin under (bodycon top). The way she dragged the pin under also wounded me inside. I was the only one there surrounded by all of them and I was struggling to help myself.

    “They were dragging me and some of them wanted to touch me. So, I was trying to cover myself and also defending myself. That was what they recorded and put out there.

    “I was surprised, I never expected that. It was so much for one person to bear. I was very angry and kept asking them why they would do that to me? Still they made video of me and put it out there.

    “The trauma is just too much. I cannot even go out there again. My body is out there. Some people have even used it to make stickers.

    “Right now, I don’t know how I will be going for work interview. I am into real estate. Imagine going to sell or advertise a property to a client and they will be looking at my breast. “Imagine what my unborn kids or the man that will marry will  say about my reputation. I haven’t come out to say my part of the story because I was still on treatment.

    “I never expected that the phone situation will come out this way. People are now making mockery of me, sending me messages that my body is outside.

    “Those who know me can attest that I am not really a social media person. I am happy I am strong enough to talk now. I am not a troublesome person; I am not a nuisance. I never refused to switch off my phone,” she lamented.

  • How Ibom Air hostess physically assaulted me, Emmanson recounts ordeal

    How Ibom Air hostess physically assaulted me, Emmanson recounts ordeal

    Miss Comfort Emmanson, the young woman at the center of a controversy involving Ibom Air crew, has narrated her side of the story.

    In a post on her verified Instagram account, @soft_commy, Emmanson alleged that a flight hostess, identified as Julian Edwards, forcefully pulled off her frontal wig, cut off her gold jewelry, and damaged her mobile phones.

    She explained that the confrontation escalated after she questioned the crew member over the destruction of her personal belongings.

    According to her, Edwards also insulted her by calling her a prostitute and initially prevented her from disembarking from the plane.

    Emmanson lamented that the incident left her traumatized, adding that the circulation of her private images on social media has worsened her distress.

    She said, “…I want to first appreciate God Almighty and everyone that stood by me and fought for me when I was in prison. When I came out the love and support I saw, I was not expecting it for a commoner like me. I say God bless you all.

    “So, on August 10, I boarded a flight from Uyo to Lagos and the normal procedure was on. The lady Juliana was telling everyone to switch off their phones. When she came to me, I was struggling with my phone and she said I should put off my phone.

    “I showed her that one of the phone was bad. The button was bad and she said I can turn it off without the power button. I had two phones and so the man sitting beside me helped me to turn off the other one.

    “While she was talking, she said I should go to my settings and to general…I pleaded with her to take the phone off it but she refused saying “children nowadays…”

    “I asked her to spell general for me but the way she looked at me and the pressure from her, so, I turned to the man who switched off the first one and begged him to help. The man spelt general and I went back to her but she looked at me with bad eye.

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    “So, I turned to the man again and he helped me switch the second one off. I put both phones where they are supposed to be.

    “But before she left, she said, ‘you will see”. I didn’t take it to heart since I have already switched my phones off.
    “So, when we arrived in Lagos, I rushed to the bathroom to pee. My seat was at the back. There was someone inside already and so I had to wait for the person to come out.

    “After the person left, I got in, peed and when I was done, I went out of the bathroom. I didn’t stay that long inside because it’s a small place and very discomforting. So, I went out and carried my things to leave but she blocked my way.

    “I kept telling her to leave the road for me to go as everyone had left the aircraft but she stood there looking at me with a bad eye (condescendingly).

    “That’s when I brought out my phone and did that short video to show how she was blocking my exit. When I brought out my phone, she then turned around showing me her back.

    “Then, she noticed I was recording her and she pushed me inside, dragged my frontal out, cut my gold chain in the process of tearing my cloth and also made my phones fall to the ground and break.

    “I was in pain, she inflicted so much pain on me. Anyone who has fixed a frontal knows how painful it is then imagine someone dragging it out forcefully. It was all these pains she caused me that made me poke her in the face, asking her why she did that to me?

    “God knows I wouldn’t poke an elderly woman, old enough to be my mother, for nothing. It’s the pain she inflicted on me and calling me a prostitute that’s why I was asking her why she did that.

    “Before I knew it, all those guys had come in and surrounded me. They were dragging me and the lady Juliana was the one who dragged my pin under (bodycon top). The way she dragged the pin under also wounded me inside. I was the only one there surrounded by all of them and I was struggling to help myself.

    “They were dragging me and some of them wanted to touch me. So, I was trying to cover myself and also defending myself. That was what they recorded and put out there.

    “I was surprised, I never expected that. It was so much for one person to bear. I was very angry and kept asking them why they would do that to me? Still they made video of me and put it out there.

    “The trauma is just too much. I cannot even go out there again. My body is out there. Some people have even used it to make stickers.

    “Right now, I don’t know how I will be going for work interview. I am into real estate. Imagine going to sell or advertise a property to a client and they will be looking at my breast. “Imagine what my unborn kids or the man that will marry will say about my reputation. I haven’t come out to say my part of the story because I was still on treatment.

    “I never expected that the phone situation will come out this way. People are now making mockery of me, sending me messages that my body is outside.
    “Those who know me can attest that I am not really a social media person. I am happy I am strong enough to talk now. I am not a troublesome person; I am not a nuisance. I never refused to switch off my phone,” she lamented.

  • FG, Ibom Air and Ms Emmanson

    FG, Ibom Air and Ms Emmanson

    Judging from how speedily the Aviation ministry has tried to douse the firestorm created by the Ibom Air/Comfort Emmanson scuffle, and the ValueJet/Wasiu Ayinde (KWAM 1) kerfuffle, it is obvious that Nigeria’s penchant for amicable resolutions will once again rob the country of the opportunity to set a precedent for tackling such dangerous encounters or to enable its institutions function independently and seamlessly. The ValueJet affair occurred first, on August 5, some five days before the Ibom Air August 10 scuffle. There has been enough blame to go round all the people and organisations involved in both affairs. ValueJet pilots, who were probably angered by KWAM 1’s effrontery, were accused of violating departure procedure by taxing before the ground staff gave the all-clear. Mr Ayinde, who tempestuously prevented the aircraft from taking off because cabin crew denied him the use of the contents of a handheld flask, was accused of arrogance, unruly behaviour and violation of a number of aviation regulations.

    In the second affair, Ibom Air cabin crew and aviation security officials were accused of highhandedness and unprofessionalism in their attempt to restrain Ms Emmanson, a passenger on the Uyo-Lagos flight of August 10. First they prevented her from disembarking on her own on the grounds that she had violated some aviation regulations, then used force to deplane her and in the process stripped her naked. Ms Emmanson on the other hand was alleged to have assaulted cabin crew, damaged airline property, and behaved most cantankerously before the plane took off and when it landed. The Aviation ministry, in the eyes of some Nigerians, among whom was former Anambra State governor Peter Obi, was accused of giving preferential treatment to Mr Ayinde while expeditiously charging Ms Emmanson in court a day after the Lagos Airport incident. The uproar among the public, not to say the din which both affairs had raised particularly in legal circles, was so animated that the Aviation minister Festus Keyamo looked for a way out of the quandary. He eventually directed the withdrawal of criminal complaints and charges against both KWAM 1 and Ms Emmanson, arguing that no one involved in the fracas was guiltless, and that in any case lessons had been well learnt. However, investigations will still be carried out in order to better understand what happened, what went wrong, and what remedies should be administered for improved aviation procedure and passenger flying experience.

    Read Also:How Ibom Air passenger was provoked – Eyewitness

    Undoubtedly, the Aviation industry and Nigeria’s justice system will learn a thing or two from both incidents, and in the weeks and years ahead, Nigerians will hopefully have a far better flying experience than they are used to. However, exacerbated by social media commentaries, the incidents will once again expose the fragility of Nigeria. It is of course human that some individuals will have anger management issues, can be instigated by wealth and status to commit antisocial behaviour, or as the case of the National Youth Service Corps member Rita Ushie Uguamaye, commit full public indiscretion just for the heck of it. But what truly bothers many Nigerians is the corrosive ethnic insinuation arising from the official management of the KWAM 1 provocation and the Ms Emmanson scuffle. These insinuations were of course largely limited to the social media. But as feral as the social media has become, its influence cannot be discounted in shaping for the worse social and political behaviour. To learn the right lessons, therefore, the country must reexamine the way aviation regulatory bodies and professionals handle provocations and anomalies, the procedure by which the justice system responds to disputes of the kind brought before them, and how officials handle or comment on public affairs with the sensitivity and impartiality required of their exalted positions.

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    Preliminarily, aviation regulatory bodies, including the Aviation ministry itself, had handled the two affairs in a desultory manner, almost incompetently and emotionally. They acted before engaging in full and impartial investigations. The justice system in the Ms Emmanson case also allowed itself to be stampeded by biased regulatory bodies and media rather than be guided by the facts before the court. Ms Emmanson was clearly and tragically railroaded into jail. Most political leaders declined to comment on the two cases because they awaited more facts, but Mr Obi, who interprets opposition politics in terms of spontaneous comments and conclusions on minutiae, focused more on seeing double standard in the official response to the two provocations. He spoke less about the appalling disregard for rules and professionalism, not to talk of the indefensible mistreatment of Ms Emmanson bordering on oppression, torture, and abuse. Mr Obi should have waited a little bit more in order to avoid making simplistic conclusions. As events unfolded, it became clear that the two incidents were different; and while both showed a violation of aviation regulations, the August 10 incident harks back to the long-standing and culture-based mistreatment of women in Nigeria.

    Mr Ayinde and the ValueJet pilots may have escaped with a slap on the wrist, and the case against Ms Emmanson rightly withdrawn because of its shoddiness and manifest one-sidedness in order to defuse tension and redirect attention to other less combustive matters. But Mr Keyamo and other relevant aviation-related agencies must still press on with their investigations to unearth what went wrong, in what manner officials abused their privileges, and what lessons everyone can imbibe to engender a better Aviation industry. These steps must, however, not preclude whatever legal remedies Ms Emmanson might wish to pursue to find relief for her rights that were cruelly and indefensibly violated by Ibom Air crew and Aviation security officials. Suggesting that during interrogation Ms Emmanson showed remorse over her actions was a needless overreach to influence the outcome of investigations. Hopefully, too, the judiciary may have learnt a thing or two about judicial stampede which public officials are overly fond of, but for which the courts must show no toleration.

  • JUST IN: AON lifts life ban on unruly Ibom Air passenger

    JUST IN: AON lifts life ban on unruly Ibom Air passenger

    The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has lifted the lifetime ban placed on Ms. Comfort Emmanson, an Ibom Air passenger previously sanctioned for unruly behaviour.

    The decision followed an appeal by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, according to a statement by AON spokesperson, Professor Obiora Okonkwo.

    Okonkwo said the operators resolved to lift the ban after considering all circumstances, including Emmanson’s display of remorse, the withdrawal of the complaint, the striking out of charges, and her release from custody.

    He commended the Federal Government for proposing a retreat to retrain Aviation Security (AVSEC) personnel and airline crew on handling disruptive passengers, and urged aviation agencies to intensify public sensitisation on the dangers and legal consequences of unruly behaviour, as outlined in Section 85 of the Civil Aviation Act, 2022 and Part 17 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations, 2023.

    Read Also: How Ibom Air passenger was provoked – Eyewitness

    Unruly conduct, he noted, includes assaulting or threatening crew members, ignoring safety instructions, smoking in prohibited areas, fighting, disorderly behaviour, or tampering with aircraft equipment.

    The AON also reiterated that pilots-in-command and AVSEC officers are empowered to restrain and de-board disruptive passengers and hand them over to competent authorities to safeguard flight operations and maintain order.

    “We confirm that members shall cooperate with the relevant aviation agencies and participate in the retraining retreats on how to handle cases of unruly and disruptive passengers as proposed by the Minister,” Okonkwo added.

  • How Ibom Air passenger was provoked – Eyewitness

    How Ibom Air passenger was provoked – Eyewitness

    A passenger on an Ibom Air flight from Uyo to Lagos has claimed that airline staff provoked fellow traveller Comfort Emmanson before the aircraft landed at Murtala Muhammed Airport.

    David Ogede, a lawyer who sat next to Emmanson during the flight, told Channels Television’s The Morning Brief that one of the air hostesses engaged her in a confrontational manner both before departure and mid-flight.

    Ogede said the first air hostess was professional and polite when instructing passengers to switch off phones before takeoff. However, a second hostess intervened after Emmanson explained that her phone’s power button was faulty.

    “Even from her posture, it was clear she came looking for trouble,” Ogede recalled. “The air hostess told her again, ‘Switch off your phone, switch off your phone.’ And Emmanson replied clearly, ‘Please, the buttons on my phone to switch off are not working… I do not know how to switch it off.’”

    He alleged that the exchange escalated when the hostess dismissed Emmanson’s explanations, told her she didn’t need a button to power off her iPhone but refused to assist when asked.

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    “I do not have time for your nonsense. Just switch it off,” Ogede quoted the hostess as saying.

    The situation drew the attention of nearby passengers, who offered to help after Emmanson said she couldn’t read the phone’s settings menu. Ogede claimed the tension persisted until landing, with passengers sensing the matter could spiral.

    After touchdown, Emmanson reportedly began cursing in strong language during disembarkation, prompting the second air hostess to walk away without returning.

    Ogede said the incident might have been avoided entirely if the matter had been handled with more tact by the crew.