The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has grounded more than 60 private jets flying in the country over alleged failure to pay import duty.
It was learnt that most of the affected aircraft are foreign-registered, which are flying in the country in line with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations.
The exercise of grounding of the aircraft started at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos and the NnamdiAzikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja and other airports on Monday and continued till Tuesday.
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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.
It was learnt that the affected jets belong to private individuals in Nigeria, who 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.”
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Since last year, the NCS has 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 Ahmed Alli as the Comptroller-General, wrote a letter to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), demanding that the then director general of the agency to ground some of the foreign-registered aircraft over an import duty claim, a request the NCAA rejected.
It was learnt that 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.
