Operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Command in Lagos last Thursday intercepted an air soft gun otherwise known as Zinc Alloy Shell G15 pistol and five sachets of pellets from a passenger at the airport.
The items were allegedly 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 of passengers’ luggage by the Customs and other relevant agencies at the airport.
Ukeje, who claimed that the pistol was not a real gun, said that he bought the air gun for his son.
The Public Relations Officer NCS, at the airport, Mrs. Thelma Williams, told journalists last 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.
“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,” Williams said.
It would be recalled that 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 MMIA.
Concealed as golf bags and wrapped in a carton, the rifles were contained in a courier package billed for delivery to an unnamed suspected arms smuggler based in Abuja.
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