Police arrest popular actor, Iyke over assault on airline staff

  • Vandalises airport facilities
Nollywood actor, Jim Iyke was  today arrested by the Nigerian police, Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos Command for slapping a security staff of Dana Air, simply identified as Suleiman.

A report gathered by our correspondent indicated that Iyke who had arrived late for the flight out of Lagos to Abuja was reluctant to be screened by the security personnel of the airline, but the insistence of one of them increased his aggression.

It was gathered that he was supposed to depart Lagos with a 12:15pm flight, but he came few minutes after 12:00.

For most airlines, check-in closes 30 minutes before flight and about an hour for international flight.
It was learnt that Iyke in the course of the aggression damaged some facilities at the terminal, which led to the airline inviting the police to take charge of the ugly situation.

He was eventually taken away by the police and detained by the police command. While at the station, he was said to have   telephoned his lawyer who pointedly told him that his action was wrong and against safety standard.

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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.

Mr. Kingsley Ezenwa, the spokesman of Dana Air, confirmed the development in an interview with our correspondent.

 

According to Ezenwa, Iyke had came later for the flight, but because of his personality, the airline’s staff attempted to him in order not to miss the flight, but he was not satisfied with the secondary security check he was made to go through like any other passengers for security purpose.

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Kingsley said: “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.

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“After this we put him on the next flight, which was 6pm out of Lagos.

Wole Shadare