Hilda Dokubo talks about bomb scare at Port Harcourt

One of the 98 passengers on the Lagos-bound flight W3 701, which was evacuated yesterday at the Port Harcourt Airport, following a bomb scare, has spoken of her trauma.

Nollywood actress Hilda Dokubo said she was “terrified”, “traumatised” and “shaken” by the incident.

A suspect, Mr. Chukwuka Nwokolo, who alerted Dokubo of the “about-to-explode” bomb, was arrested by State Security Service (SSS) operatives in Abuja “through radar and intelligence”. SSS officers and men in Rivers State Command were involved in the operations and networking, which led to the arrest, it was learnt.

Nwokolo also threatened to bomb five aircraft, for undisclosed reasons, The Nation was told.

Dokubo had hardly taken her seat in the aircraft when she got a call that a bomb would go off on the plane.

Dokubo, in a telephone interview from Abuja at 2:59 pm, said: “I got a call from Chukwuka Nwokolo, whom I do not know and whom I have never met. He asked me to leave the aircraft immediately, that everybody in the aircraft will die. We had a lot of children in the aircraft. I was terrified, traumatised and shaken.

“It was boarding time. The gangway had not been removed. So, I took the phone to the Station Manager of Arik Air, who was at the foot of the aircraft, who continued to discuss with Nwokolo and later contacted the pilot and other persons. I do not have the details of what transpired later.

“The flight was scheduled for 7:50 am, but everybody was asked to disembark. I was going to Lagos for a meeting between 9am and 12 noon, but we stayed at the airport for four hours. I felt it would not make sense to still head for Lagos at that time, when the meeting would have been over. I later joined Arik Air to Abuja.

“It is wicked to attempt to bomb a plane occupied mostly by children. We are alive only by the grace of God Almighty. All our appointments and programmes for the day were messed up. So much is happening in Nigeria right now. Nothing can replace human life.

“The plan to bomb the aircraft is dangerous and criminal. Everybody on board would have been killed. It does not make sense. We became worried because of the recent bombings in Warri and Abuja.

“I later got a call from an SSS officer in Port Harcourt, congratulating me that the bomber was later arrested in Abuja, through radar. Honestly, I do not know the SSS man’s name, but he and other officers have been involved in the operations since morning. They have been working so hard. I thank all of them and others who were involved in getting to the root of the matter.”

The Assistant General Manager, Public Affairs, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) in Port Harcourt, Mr. Victor Arisa, spoke of how police bomb disposal squad “combed the whole place, asked passengers to disembark and luggage removed. No bomb found and the passengers were later flown to Lagos, he said.

Rivers police spokesperson Rita Inoma-Abbey said the Airport Manager reported the bomb scare to the police at 9:34 am.

Inoma-Abbey said Taiwo Akin, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), reinforced the Police Bomb Disposal Squad personnel at the airport by 10:20 am. The search of the plane was concluded at 10:30 am. No bomb was found, she said.

But a security source told our reporter last night that the arrested suspect confessed that a bomb was exactly hidden in a blue bag inside the aircraft. Contrary to the claims by the Police and FAAN

All the passengers were flown out by Arik flight W3 512, which came in from Lagos, at 12:17 pm. It landed in Lagos at 1:10 pm. Other Arik flights, including the 8:30 am flight to Abuja, were not affected.