A Nollywood actor, Mr. Jim Iyke was on Monday arrested by the operatives of Nigeria police Airport Command at Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos for physically assaulting a security staff in the airport.
African Business Travel News (ABTN) gathered that Iyke who had arrived late for the flight out of Lagos to Abuja decided to take laws into his hands and slapped a security official of Dana Air simply identified as Suleiman when he was asked him to submit himself for screening before been allowed into the aircraft.
Our correspondent gathered that he was supposed to depart Lagos with a 12:15pm flight, but he came few minutes after 12:00. This was behind the check in scheduled time.
In local flights, a traveller is expected to arrive the airport and commence the check-in processes at least an hour to the flight while it is about two hours on international flight.
It was learnt that Iyke in the course of his aggressive behavior damaged some facilities at the terminal, which led to the airline inviting the police to take charge of the unpalatable situation.
He was eventually arrested by the police and detained, but while he was at the station, he reportedly telephoned his lawyer who pointedly told him that his action was wrong and against safety standard.
He, however, wrote a statement and apologised for his unruly behaviours.
Iyke was later checked in into a 6:00pm flight to Abuja out of the airport.
Confirming the development the spokesman of Dana Air, Mr. Kingsley Ezenwa in an interview with our correspondent said that, Iyke had came late for the flight, but because of his personality, the airline’s staff attempted to help him in order not to miss the flight, but he was not satisfied with the secondary security check which he was made to go through like any other passengers for security purpose.
“He came late for flight and we were actually trying to help him. Someone was seeing him off to the aircraft and even at this, you have to go through the security checks, but he didn’t want to go through this and eventually became violent against the security personnel of the airline who stuck to the rules. He was unruly and gave our staff a slap.
“Our security guys refused to let him go because he actually breached security and the safety regulations. The airport police command intervened in the whole matter and he was arrested. He later wrote a statement and apologised and realised his errors. There was a written statement by him.
“After this we put him on the next flight, which was 6pm out of Lagos,” Kingsley said.
