Hyacinth Chinweuba
Nollywood actor, Jim Iyke, has been arrested by the Police at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2, Lagos, for allegedly assaulting a male security staff of Dana Air.
The actor was later released after tendering an apology. A spokesman for Dana Air, Kingsley Ezenwa, who confirmed the incident, said the action of Iyke constituted a breach of Nigerian civil aviation regulations and the actor was arrested and also denied boarding by the airline following the assault on the security operative, who was identified as S. Suleiman.
“He was very unruly and slapped one of our staff and that’s against civil regulation laws, so we got him arrested by the police and we also denied him boarding our aircraft. But when he realized he had made a mistake and showed remorse by tendering a written apology to the staff and management of the airline, we had to forgive him and let him off the hook,” Ezenwa said.
It was learned that Iyke, who had arrived late for the Lagos-Abuja bound flight, had resisted being screened by the security personnel of the airline as he attempted to beat the checkpoint to gain speed and board his flight. But the insistence of one of them apparently incensed him.
“Iyke arrived late. His flight was supposed to depart Lagos at 12:15 pm, but he came few minutes after 12:00,” said a witness. “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 unpalatable situation.”
Ezenwa said Iyke was later checked in for a 6pm flight to Abuja out of the airport. A spokesman for the Lagos Airport police command, Alabi Joseph, also confirmed the incident to aviation correspondents, saying Iyke was released after he tendered a written apology.