Comfort Emmanson, the passenger at the centre of the dramatic Ibom Air incident that has dominated public discourse, has recounted how she was allegedly assaulted, stripped and dehumanised by a member of the airline’s cabin crew.
Speaking in a video she posted on her Instagram account soft_commy, days after her release from Kirikiri Prison in Lagos, Emmanson said the ordeal began during a flight from Uyo to Lagos when she encountered difficulties turning off one of her phones despite complying with the airline’s instructions.
“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,” she narrated.
According to Emmanson, a fellow passenger who identified himself as an engineer eventually assisted her in switching off both devices. But the situation escalated after the plane landed in Lagos.
“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 begged her, I said please let me pass. She did not answer me… 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,” she said.
Emmanson insisted her only physical reaction was provoked by pain: “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… 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.”
Pulling up the damaged wig and broken neck chain as evidence, she further claimed she was dehumanised after security officers intervened.
“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,” she said, fighting back tears.
She lamented that the circulation of the video had left her stigmatised. “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?”
Declaring that she was neither “a troublesome person” nor “a nuisance,” she said she only wished for redemption: “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. I only wish for redemption and to regain whatever dignity I have left as a woman.”
Her father, visibly distraught in a separate video, demanded compensation from the airline.
“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 asked. “The first day I saw the video, I was so provoked. All the pains I went through to send my child to school… They have rubbished our image. I don’t feel like eating or doing anything.”
While rejecting insinuations that she was unstable or wayward, Emmanson apologised for her reactions during the ordeal, saying, “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.”
She added that the experience had become a lesson and a turning point: “I want to continue my life, my normal lifestyle… I will round off my treatment, recover fully from everything and move forward.”
Chiemelie Ezeobi and Wale Igbintade
The post “Can’t Go Out Again Because My Body Is Out There”: Comfort Emmanson Breaks Silence, Says She Was Assaulted and Dehumanised By Ibom Air Hostess appeared first on Arise News.
