After months of threats, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has finally grounded more than 60 private jets flying in the country over alleged failure to pay import duty, THISDAY learnt on Tuesday.
Most of the affected aircraft are foreign registered, which are flying in the country in line with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations.
Informed sources told THISDAY that the grounding of the aircraft started at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja and other airports on Monday and continued till Tuesday.
It was gathered that customs also sealed off some of the foreign private jets at ExecuJet located at a free trade zone facility at the Lagos airport, operated by Quits Aviation.
A source close to some of the private jet owners, said that the impounded aircraft belonged to private individuals in Nigeria, which are under the Permit for Non-Commercial Flight (PNCF) licence.
The permit is granted to individuals who want to own and operate aircraft for personal use and not for reward or hire.
At the Lagos airport, a seal of the NCS from the MMIA Command, showed that the service grounded some of the private jets in its facilities. The official seal of the NCS stated that: “In accordance with section 221 of the NCS Act 2023, unauthorised removal or breakage of this seal attracts a fine of N100 million or 10 years imprisonment or both.”
Informed industry sources expressed worries over the grounding of aircraft in ExecuJet services, which is an international organisation, which located its office in Nigeria to service private jets in West and Central Africa.
According to the source, as a duty-free zone area, the Customs had no right to seal aircraft in the premises of the company. The source said: ‘ExecuJet is a duty-free zone. What are the customs doing in a duty-free zone?”
Since last year, the NCS had been threatening to ground private jets owned by very important persons in Nigeria over alleged unpaid import duty running into billions of naira.
Also, a few years ago, the NCS under Mr. Ahmed Alli as the Comptroller-General, wrote a letter to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), demanding the then director general of the agency to ground some of the foreign registered aircraft over import duty claim, a request the NCAA rejected.
It was learnt the NCAA then insisted the private jets did not break any known regulations of Nigeria. Specifically, in October last year, the NCS had threatened to ground over 60 private jets owned by very important persons in the country over unpaid import duty.
But, this did not take place, as the NCS later announced the extension of the verification exercise for private jet owners by one month, from October 14, 2024, to November 14, 2024.
When contacted to react to this incident, the Director, Public Affairs, NCAA, Mr. Michael Achimugu, said he was not aware of the latest development and promised to find out and get back later with a response.
Chinedu Eze
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