Ebun Francis
The Nigeria Custom Service, Friday, in Lagos, South West, Nigeria, handed over to the Air Force, two bell helicopters it recently impounded.
At the handing over ceremony, the Deputy Comptroller General of Customs, Dan Ugo, alleged that the importers of the helicopters failed to comply with the necessary import requirement.
According to him, “Due to the vigilance of the officers and their controller here, it was observed, when the requisite documents were requested for, that they breached our laws.
“This kind of equipment should come with end user certificate and some other things and the law provides that if you import in breach of the law, we make a seizure of the items.
“After seizing, it is not enough. we must go the whole hog. The process is that we go and appear before the court of law, file for condemnation and the court actually condemned it and forfeited it to the Federal Government of Nigeria,” he told reporters.
The representative of Nigeria Air Force, Air Commodore Hyacinth Eze, while receiving the helicopters said the aircraft would assist the force in the war against the Boko Haram insurgency currently being fought in the north-east.