Following a complaint by the former Director-General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Joe Abah, regarding a N2,000 charge by officials of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the authority has clarified the reason for the charge.

In a statement signed by the General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Henrietta Yakubu, and shared on Twitter, the authority noted that the N2,000 charge was a “cargo surcharge” applicable to items that would need to go through the cargo section of the airport but “brought in through the passenger terminals.”

The statement read, “The attention of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has been drawn to a tweet by Dr. Joe Abah, a passenger who complained of being charged a fee of N2, 000 for carrying a dutiable item in his travel suitcase and sought explanations on the legal basis for charging this fee.

“For the purpose of clarity, the N2, 000 is not a fee charged on dutiable items, as only the Nigerian Customs Service is empowered by law to collect duties.

“The N2, 000 is a cargo surcharge, and it is only applicable to items that are supposed to be facilitated through the cargo section of the airport, but being brought in through passenger terminals.

“The essence of imposing this surcharge is to discourage passengers from bringing such items through passenger terminals, as they negatively impact on the serviceability of conveyor belts and other facilities in the terminals.

“Consequently, we advise our highly esteem passengers to facilitate such items through the cargo section, where they will only be charged N7 per kilo. We will also like to encourage Dr.Joe Abah to please make use of the cargo section for such items in the future, to avoid the N2, 000 cargo surcharge being collected at the passenger terminals.”

However, Abah stated that he would pursue the case further, pushing for further investigation into the matter, as he would report the matter to the appropriate authorities.