Thursday, June 5, 2025 - The Nigerian government, through the Nigeria Customs Service, has explained why it has grounded 60 private jets across major Nigerian airports over unpaid customs duties amounting to billions of naira.
The spokesperson of the Nigeria Customs Service, Abdullahi
Maiwada, confirmed the development on Wednesday.
According to him, the seal of the private aircraft came
after the service issued several statements and extended the verification
deadline.
He noted that the service needed to carry out enforcement to
collect revenue for Nigerians.
“NCS enforcement has started. The aircraft are grounded for
the non-payment of customs duty, and as soon as they come over to regularise
their payment and give what is due to Nigerians, they will get it back,” he
said.
He added that, “We issued a statement when we started the
verification, and we extended the period and even ‘overextended the period’;
now that we are acting, everyone already knows our reason. We just have to
enforce it; we have to collect revenue for Nigerians so that it will be used
for Nigerians.
“Now that we have grounded them, they will have to comply.
We are hopeful, and we know that they will comply.”
Some of the grounded luxury aircraft include Bombardier
BD-700 Global 6000, BD-700 Global 6500, and BD-700 Global 7500, among others,
owned by Nigerian banks, top business moguls, and other very important persons.
However, there are indications that some of the aircraft
have been unsealed as of Wednesday after compliance and interventions.
Customs issued private jet owners a 30-day grace period to
regularise their documents or face grounding.
Despite the expiration of the grace period, NCS did not
take action due to several court cases.
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