Customs intercept air gun, pellets at Lagos airport

Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos

Operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Command in Lagos on Thursday have intercepted an air soft gun otherwise known as Zinc Alloy Shell G15 pistol and five sachets of pellets from a passenger at the premier airport.

The items were found on the passenger, identified as Mr. Ukeje Joseph, with passport number A04206153, during the inward clearance of Kenya Airways flight KQ532 from Johannesburg in South Africa.

The event occurred during routine examination by the Customs and other relevant agencies at the Lagos Airport on passengers’ luggage.

The passenger claimed that the pistol was not a real gun. Joseph said he bought the air gun for his son.

The Public Relations Officer NCS, at the airport, Mrs. Thelma Williams, told reporters on Thursday that the passenger and the air soft gun with five sachets of pellets had been handed over to the Airport Police Command for further investigations.

She said, “During the inward clearance of Kenya Airways flight KQ532 from Johannesburg , in South Africa, on the April 24, 2013, about 1050 hours, one Mr Ukeja Goodluck Joseph with Nigerian passport number A04206153, upon normal routine examination with other relevant agencies, his luggage was found to contain one air soft gun zinc alloy shell G15 pistol which he claimed to have bought for his son claiming that it is not a real gun.

“The passenger and the air soft gun with five sachets of pellets have been handed over to the airport police command for further investigations.”

On July, 13, 2012, the command intercepted an Abuja bound cache of three high-calibre air rifles that entered the country through the courier shed of the airport.

Concealed as golf bags and wrapped in a carton, the rifles were contained in a courier package billed for delivering to an unnamed arms smuggler based in the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja.

The Customs Area Controller, MMIA, Mr. Epowei Edike, while parading the suspects, said it took the eagle eyes of officers of the command to intercept the prohibited ammunition which were imported in sharp contravention of existing Nigerian laws.