Nollywood Actor Jim Iyke Arrested For Slapping Airport Official

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

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

In local flights, a traveler is expected to arrive the airport and commence the check-in processes at least an hour to the flight while its about two hours on 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 unpalatable situation. He was eventually arrested by the police and detained by the police command, 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 behaviour. 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 assist 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 passenger for security purpose. 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. “After this we put him on the next flight, which was 6pm out of Lagos.