The Federal Government, through the Nigeria Customs Service, has grounded about 60 private jets across major airports in Nigeria.
This is in a bid to recover import duties from some private jet owners in the country.
It was also gathered that private jet hangars in Lagos and Abuja airports were reportedly sealed up. However, owners of the aircraft, including bank chiefs and multinational oil companies among other individuals, have begun to lobby the Presidency to secure the release of their jets.
Some of the grounded luxury aircraft include Bombardier BD-700 Global 6000, BD-700 Global 6500, BD-700 Global 7500, among others. Officials of the NCS and those in the aviation sector confirmed this in separate interviews on Wednesday.
There are reports that duties are not being paid on the majority of private jets currently in the country, with the Nigeria Customs Service seeking to recover unpaid import duties running into several billions of naira.
The Customs had asked private jet owners to proceed on a verification exercise with the government. The exercise was to determine defaulters in the payment of import duty.
Recall that on October 14, 2024, The PUNCH reported that the Federal Government, through the Nigeria Customs Service, had planned to ground over 60 private jets owned by very important persons in the country over unpaid import duty beginning from that day.
This was not implemented as the NCS later that same day announced the extension of the verification exercise for private jet owners by one month, from October 14, 2024, to November 14, 2024.
