The Nigerian government has explained that it is yet to take action on 60 private jets that operate in the country without payment of import duties amounting to several billions due to various court cases.
The Nigeria Customs Service spokesperson, Abdullahi Maiwada, disclosed this on Tuesday while filing questions on the verification exercise for private jet owners.
Recall that in October, NCS had announced an extension of the exercise by a month to November 14, 2024.
However, despite the expiration of the deadline, NCS is yet to take action against the private jet owners.
Reacting to the development on why NCS has not grounded the private jets, Maiwada blamed several cases.
“There are issues that border on some court processes, and any disclosure will very much interfere with the processes, and that is why we cannot update the public about it. So we don’t want to interfere with the investigations and outcome of the process, he said.
Recall that in June 2024, the NCS summoned nearly 80 privately owned aircraft in Nigeria to present their import documents or face grounding.
In November 2022, reports emerged that owners of foreign-registered private jets, comprising top business moguls, leading commercial banks, and other rich Nigerians, dragged the federal government to court seeking to prevent the government from grounding their planes for allegedly refusing to pay import duty on the jets.
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