By Ayodele Samuel Adepitan, LLM
Introduction:
On Sunday, 10 August 2025, Nigerians woke up to disturbing footage and reports of a female passenger, Ms. Comfort Emmanson, being man-handled by airline and airport personnel following an onboard altercation on an Ibom Air flight operating on the Uyo–Lagos route. What began as a dispute over compliance with pre-departure safety instructions spiralled into a public spectacle that ended with Ms. Emmanson’s forcible removal, arrest, arraignment, and remand at Kirikiri Correctional Centre before an eventual directive by the Federal Government to withdraw the criminal complaint days later. The optics, the process, and the outcome raise profound human rights concerns that we must confront honestly if dignity is to mean anything in our aviation system.
What happened and why it matters
Ibom Air confirmed that an incident occurred onboard its Uyo–Lagos flight on 10 August 2025, identifying Ms. Comfort Emmanson as the passenger involved and invoking a “zero-tolerance” posture to justify decisive action. Video clips circulated widely showed a melee at the aircraft door and later on the tarmac/airport apron area, culminating in her being bundled onto an airport bus. The airline initially imposed a lifetime ban, and she was subsequently remanded after arraignment. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) publicly emphasised passenger compliance with crew instructions. Yet the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) condemned the treatment, characterising it as reckless and an affront to the dignity of the human person. The Federal Government has since ordered the withdrawal of the criminal complaint and Ms. Emmanson’s release.
Several reports conflict on granular details, which only underscores the need for a transparent, independent fact-finding process by all the players involved. Conflicting accounts should never be resolved by mob inference; they must be resolved by evidence.
The constitutional baseline: dignity is non-negotiable
Section 34(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) guarantees the right to dignity of the human person, prohibiting torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. This guarantee is mirrored and strengthened by Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, domesticated in Nigeria, and by Nigeria’s Anti-Torture Act 2017, which outlaws cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by any person acting in an official capacity. These provisions apply in airport spaces and on aircraft just as they do on our streets, in our stations, and in our courts.
Even if a passenger is non-compliant or verbally/physically aggressive, the state’s response and the response of any person clothed with public authority, including airport security must be necessary, proportionate, and lawful. The Police Act 2020 and global policing standards recognise a strict necessity and proportionality test for any use of force. The images seen by the public were difficult to reconcile with those principles.
Aviation rules are not a licence for indignity
Aviation safety rules carry serious, legitimate weight to wit Airlines may refuse carriage to unruly passengers, and the regulator rightly emphasises compliance with crew instructions before take-off. However, those rules operate within the overarching framework of fundamental rights and Nigeria’s own aviation consumer protection regime. Enforcement whether by cabin crew, Aviation Security, or police, must follow due process and avoid excessive force.
In this case, Ibom Air’s lifetime ban, imposed in the heat of public outrage, looked more like collective punishment than a measured sanction arising from a fair, dispassionate process. The NBA’s public statement calling the treatment unlawful and dehumanising, and urging reversal of the ban, was therefore on firm normative ground. The Federal Government’s subsequent direction to withdraw the criminal complaint against Ms. Emmanson further validates concerns about overreach and procedural fairness. The principle of Fair Hearing is not negotiable and must be strictly complied with by all parties. No one can be a judge in his or her own case (Nemo Judex In Causa Sua).
This incident raised the following specific rights concerns
1. Degrading treatment in public view:
The manner of Ms. Emmanson’s restraint captured and virally disseminated appears humiliating and disproportionate. Even where removal is necessary, officials are obliged to minimise harm and humiliation. Public bundling and manhandling fail that test and erode trust in airport security culture.
2. Clear, humane use-of-force SOPs:
Update and publicly release Aviation Security use-of-force standard operating procedures, embedding de-escalation, the necessity/proportionality test, and post-incident medical evaluation. Regular audits and sanctions should follow for non-compliance.
3. Proportionate sanction framework:
Replace ad-hoc lifetime bans with a tiered, appealable sanction regime across operators administered with due process, time-bound measures, and the possibility of restorative outcomes where appropriate.
4. Crew and security training:
Mandatory, recurrent training on conflict de-escalation, trauma-informed handling and why human rights standards for all front-line personnel, including private security contractors who act in concert with public agencies.
5. Passenger education:
The NCAA’s public reminders on compliance should be sustained but paired with assurances of respectful treatment and clear complaint mechanisms passengers can trust.
Conclusion
The airport is not a constitutional vacuum, and the cabin door is not a border beyond the reach of the right to dignity. What Nigerians saw on 10 August was more than an aviation scuffle; it was a stress test of our institutions’ commitment to humane, proportionate enforcement. By acknowledging error, correcting the process, and embedding rights-respecting standards, the aviation sector can protect both safety and dignity and ensure that no passenger, however difficult, is stripped of the humanity our Constitution guarantees.
Ayodele Samuel Adepitan, LLM
Legal Practitioner & Human Rights Advocate.
