Nollywood actor, Jim Iyke has debunked the story trending in the social media that he was arrested by the Police for slapping a Dana Air Staff in Lagos. In his swift reaction, the Nollywood ‘bad boy’ denied assaulting anyone at the airport and that what was being reported online are incorrect rumours circulated by passersby who obviously did not know the full details of the story.
“People are just amazing, the truth is that I was running late for a flight in Abuja, my people had sent my luggage ahead. I tried hard not to miss the flight, but by the time I made it to the gate, the Captain had almost shut the aircraft,” he said.
He explained further that one of the security guards close by got too eager and got involved. “One of the security guards who saw me struggling to make my way in got overzealous and got into an argument with my PA, then they started exchanging words and pointing fingers at the heat of the moment.
“At the end of the day, we couldn’t even make (the flight) and when we were coming back, the airport assistant went to call the Police and said my personal assistant hit his face and pushed him, but when the Policeman said it was me, I told them to let us go down stairs to resolve the matter, it was an issue of tempers fraying. We then went down stairs and the matter was resolved. I even boarded the same Dana Aircraft and I was shocked upon my arrival to hear that I was arrested by the Police, which Police?”
He continued: “I know that people need content, but lets not blow things out of proportion, I am not the kind of person who will post a rejoineder on issues like this because I will be fuelling the fire, but we are all human, we lose our temper at different points in our lives especially with how rude and unprofessional people are and more bewildering is the fact that people never want to hear the other side of the story.
“The funny part is that this guy they said I slapped came to pick me up at the lounge and took me to the plane. He got me a better seat and I gave him little charge because I know the country is hard. We hugged and ended it on a greater note. The manager himself took me to the plane and I told him to school his staff on how to treat people. It is said the length people will go to spread the fake news about people”.
The actor in the past has acquired a reputation for being hot head, perhaps owing to his Nollywood persona as a ‘badboy’. The 41-year-old has always maintained that the character the was often cast as, had little resemblance to his actual person.
It was reported that Jim Iyke on August 27, 2018 was arrested by the policemen attached to the Lagos Airport after he allegedly slapped a staff of Dana Air. It was gathered that the actor had missed his fight to Abuja after arriving late and he got angry.
However, when a security staff of the airline was trying to profile him (search him), Iyke gave him a slap, the airport policemen were immediately called in by the management of the airline and Iyke was whisked away.