A passenger aboard Turkish Airlines, Tony Lucky, last Friday violently attacked officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) attached to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, over his profiling by the officials.
Lucky, who was allegedly drunk, had come into the country from Italy on December 14, 2018, without international passport, which is against aviation standards.
A source close to the scene of the incident confided in our correspondent that officials of immigration said Lucky bluntly refused to be profiled by the officials and went berserk by attacking them when they insisted on following the required standards.
Lucky had flown into the country without an international passport, but was in possession of Emergency Travel Certificate (ETC), which is usually issued to citizens without international passport by embassies.

It is required that any passenger who enters into the country with such certificate must have his or her five fingers captured, but Lucky refused to follow the protocol and refused to be captured by the officials.
The ETC is meant to be submitted to the immigration after profiling.
In the cause of the milieu, Lucky attacked all the officials present and refused to supply his finger prints until he was eventually overpowered by security details at the airport.
When he was taken to the duty room, he apologised for his misconduct and wrote an apology letter.

In the apology letter, he confessed that he misunderstood the workings of immigration and was rude to them. He also promised to be of good conduct in the future.
The source said: “His names on the ETC is Tony Lucky. He arrived aboard Turkish Airline on Friday, December 14, 2018. In the course of immigration profiling, he became violent insisting that he has no reason to be asked questions about his details.
“He had no passport on him and was not ready to answer any question about the passport or give information about himself.
“When he was told that it is compulsory that he supply his detailed information and also live his finger prints on the back of the ETC, he became violent and tried to force his way out in order to evade immigration clearance. In the process, he landed a punch on one of my officers (ACII D. MAMMAN), which led to mouth bleeding. He virtually assaulted everyone that came his way.

“It was a herculean task before we were able to take him to the duty room. At the duty room, he realised his mistakes because the probable effects of alcohol he consumed on the flight had subsided and he wrote an apology letter for all his misbehaviours.”

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.

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