The Murtala Muhammed International Airport Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Thursday intercepted an air soft gun otherwise known as zinc alloy shell G.15 pistol and five sachets of pellets from a passenger at the Lagos airport during the inward clearance of Kenya Airways flight KQ532 from Johannesburg, South Africa.
The pistol was found on the passenger identified as Ukeje Goodluck Joseph with passport number A04206153 during routine examination by the Customs and other agencies at the Lagos airport on passengers’ luggage.
The passenger, it was learnt, claimed that the pistol is not a real gun, which he said he only bought for his son.
However, according to Thelma Williams, the public relations officer of the Nigeria Customs Airport Command, the passenger and the air soft gun with five sachets of pellets have been handed over to the airport police command for further investigations.
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“During the inward clearance of Kenya Airways flight KQ532 from Johannesburg, South Africa, on April 24, 2013, about 1050hours, one Ukeje Goodluck Joseph with Nigerian passport number A04206153, upon normal routine examination with other relevant agencies, his luggage was found to contain one air soft gun zinc alloy shell G.15 pistol which he claimed to have bought for his son, claiming that it is not a real gun.
“The passenger and the air soft gun with five sachets of pellets have been handed over to the airport police command for further investigations”, she said.
On July, 13, 2012, Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Command intercepted an Abuja bound cache of three high calibre air rifles that entered the country through the courier shed of the airport.
Concealed in golf bags and wrapped in a carton, the rifles were contained in a courier package billed for delivery to an unnamed arms smuggler based in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) through a courier company.
Epowei Charles Edike, the Customs controller, MMIA Area Command, while parading the suspects disclosed that it took the eagle eyes of officers of the command to intercept the prohibited ammunition which were imported in sharp contravention of existing Nigerian laws.
