Customs to Revalidate All Private Jets from June 7

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

All owners of private jets in the country have been advised to prepare for a revalidation exercise expected to commence next Monday.

This information was disclosed today by the National Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Deputy Comptroller Joseph Attah.

At a briefing in Abuja, Mr Attah said the verification exercise was necessitated by the rise in insecurity in the country at the moment.

Some days ago, it was alleged that one of the small planes owned by a retired military officer was used to supply food items and others to terrorists in Niger State.

The spokesman of the customs informed reporters that the government found it necessary to revalidate all privately owned aircraft in the country so as to checkmate these issues.

He said the exercise will begin on Monday, June 7 and end on Tuesday, July 6, 2021.

The venue of the verification exercise, according to Mr Attah, is the headquarters of the agency in Abuja.

The spokesman of the service said private aircraft owners are expected to visit the tariff and trade department of the NCS with their aircraft certificate of registration, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)’s flight operations compliance certificate, the NCAA’s permit for non-commercial flights and temporary import permit where applicable.

Meanwhile, he disclosed that the customs generated N799.0 billion as revenue in the first five months of this year, higher than the N226.1 billion generated in the same period in 2020.