The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has handed over two brand new helicopters allegedly imported by  a south south politician but seized by the NCS for lack of clarity in ownership to the Nigerian Air force (NAF) .

The two amoured aircrafts were seized in November 7th 2016, by the Murtala Mohammed Airport command of the Service. According to the Customs Area Controller of the Airport command, Comptroller Frank Allanah, the importer did not provide the End user certificate from the National Security Adviser(NSA) as provided by the customs law.

According to the CAC “A consignment with Airway Bill No 172 3244 4403 arrived the country through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport. It was detained at SAHCOL Shed pending fulfillment of all legal requirements for the importation.

Upon examination, the consignment was found to contain two (2) Civil Models 412 EP of Serial Nos. 36606 and 36608 Bell Helicopters respectively, in standard configuration and 23 packages “Said to Contain” their accessories weighing 1145kg.

The importer could not produce End User Certificate, from the office of the National Security Adviser(NSA) an act which contravenes section 36 (2) of Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) L.F.N 2004. Consequently seizure was effected on 7th November 2016 in line with section 46 (b) of CEMA. The Duty Paid Value of the said consignment is N9, 757,135,240.86.” Allanah said.

Our findings  from the manufacturer reveals that, the two helicopters with tail No N474 NE and N462UB, with serial No 36608 and 36606 respectively  were manufactured in 2012, by Bell Helicopter Textron of Canada.

The two aircrafts which were to be coupled in Nigeria is armored in nature and has 23 big boxes of components “Said to Contain” the accessories of the aircrafts.

Record shows that the 2010 model of the helicopter cost USD $8,500,000.

Though, the customs did not disclose the value of the seized aircrafts, it is estimated to cost over $12 million each.

Our investigations further reveals that, the aircrafts were imported by a former governor from one of the south-south state, who is also a cabinet member of the President Muhammedu Buhari’s administration.

Inside sources reveals that the former governor did not emphasize that the armored aircrafts will be seized by the customs, as he tried to use various firms  and persons to effect its clearance from the customs, but it did not sail through.

It was not clear whether the former governor was importing the aircrafts for his state or for his personal use.

The suspicion in the import documents, made the customs to subject it to seizure.

It was learnt that, due to the security implication of the consignment as the importer could not obtain end user certificate from the NSA, to indicate its uses, the President ordered the customs to handover the aircrafts to the Nigeria Airforce.

Deputy Comptroller General Dan Ugo, DCG Enforcement and Investigations

represented the comptroller General of the service, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd), While Air Commodore Eze, represented the chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal  Sadiq Abubakkar  among other security agencies chiefs were at the handover ceremony.

This is the first time in the history of the customs, such seizure has been effected.

Meanwhile a total of N55,505,499,945.35 Billion was collected from January to December 2016 by the airport command. The revenue surpass the 2015 collection of N42, 746, 642, 881.3 Billion by N12.8 Billion inspite of declined in cargo throughput from 76.9 metric tonnes in 2015 to 64.63metric tonnes in 2016 respectively.

The command also made several seizures of elephant tusks, foreign currencies etc.