CONTRABAND (textile materials, shoes and jewellery) worth several billions of naira imported into the country in four cargo planes belonging to foreign airlines (names withheld) have been impounded by officials of the Murtala Muhammed Airport Command of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS).
The contraband, sources said last night, was imported by the wife of a serving governor in the South-Western part of the country.
The goods, which are currently stored in the warehouse of the command, are causing ripples within government circles, as some people are alleged to be making efforts to get the Customs to compromise.
Conducting Maritime journalists round the heap of seized items, the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Elder Jacob Buba, refused to answer questions on the owner of the goods or the plane that brought in the cargoes, noting that investigations were still ongoing.
Buba said the system was being abused and that he would soon summon an emergency meeting between the service, the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Sky Power Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) and some notable airlines operating in the country.
He said the meeting would address lapses in the system and for all stakeholders to follow due process in the discharge of their duties.
He said: �If they fail to adhere to due process in the discharge of their activities, the NCS will have no choice than to insist on the enforcement of law and order and bring sanity to bear in the system.
�We have not made any arrest or detention of suspected airlines involved in the shady import since the goods landed unaccompanied. The airlines simply dropped the goods and flew back before their content could be uncovered,� he said.
He also said the value of the goods was yet to be determined.