The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has threatened to impound 29 jets following failure of their owners to pay statutory import duties.

The Service as a follow up to its investigation on the status of the jets on Tuesday released report after verification of privately-owned airplanes in the country in Abuja.

Equally, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) had been put on notice to ensure that only privately-owned airplanes cleared by Customs were allowed to operate within the country’s airspace.

Customs’ Spokesman, Mr Joseph Attah, said the 29 airplanes would be impounded if the owners did not show up at the expiration of the 14 days ultimatum given.

It would be recalled that on May 31, Customs announced its plan to verify import documents of privately-owned airplanes in the country.

The exercise took place between June 7 and Aug. 6 at the Tariff and Trade Department of the Service.

Attah explained that within the stipulated period, 86 private jets or airplane operators showed up for the exercise and presented relevant documents for verification.

He added that 57 of them were verified as commercial charter operators and were duly cleared for operations.

He said the 29 private jets/airplanes owners and or their representatives were issued with demand notices on October 11 and were given 14 days to make payments to designated Federal Government accounts.

He said they would be issued Aircraft Clearance Certificates after payment.