Foreign-registered private jets owners have filed a lawsuit against the Federal Government over a plan to ground their jets for allegedly refusing to pay over N30 billion in import duty.

Senior pastors of popular Pentecostal churches, top business moguls, leading commercial banks, and other wealthy Nigerians are among the owners of the private jets.

According to reports, at least 17 private jet owners had gone to court to stop the federal government from grounding their jets due to their alleged refusal to pay import duties.

Recall that the Federal Government approved the Nigeria Customs Service’s decision to ground their planes in November due to nonpayment of debts.

Following a presidential approval, the NCS in a letter directed the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) to ground the affected private jets immediately.

However, due to inter-agency rivalry and disagreements, the relevant government agencies were unable to ground the private jets.

According to the Punch, Customs has been working behind the scenes to perfect the process of grounding private jets whose owners have failed to pay import duty.

Following the NCS’s decision to ground their jets, wealthy Nigerians filed a lawsuit against the government via the foreign shell companies and trustees through which the foreign-registered jets were purchased.

The jet owners are requesting a judicial review to determine whether it is legal for them to pay the contentious import duty on their private jets.

The jet owners dragged the federal government before the Federal High Court Abuja seeking the court to determine, among other things, if they were liable to pay import duty.

The suit, with number FHC/ABJ/CS/1565/2021, has 17 foreign companies of the Nigerian jet owners as the applicants, while the NCAA and Customs were listed as respondents.

The applicants are Aircraft Trust and Financing Corp Trustee, UAML Corp, Bank of Utah Trustee, Masterjet AVIACAO Executive SA, and Cloud Services Limited.

Others are MHS Aviation GmbH, Murano Trust Company Limited, Panther Jets, SAIB LLC, Empire Aviation Group, and Osa Aviation Limited.

The list also includes BUA Delaware Inc, Flying Bull Corporation Limited, Air Charter Inc, Sparfell Luftahrt GmbH, WAT Aviation Limited, and ATT Aviation Limited.

However, a hearing date is yet to be fixed for the suit, as the battle between the jet owners and the federal government continues.