A Chinese company, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, has seized three Nigerian presidential jets, which were on routine maintenance in France.
The seizure is based on a French Court ruling, which reinforced a previous order by a UK Court granting Zhongshan a breach of contract in 2021. The Chinese company also approached the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Washington to retrieve an outstanding arbitration award for $60 million in compensation from Nigeria and $75,000 in moral damages, alongside interest and legal and arbitration fees.
Zhongshan had approached the courts after the Ogun State government of Ibikunle Amosun in 2015, terminated a contract it with the company to develop a free trade zone signed in 2007. Amosun unilaterally terminated the contract and deploy crude tactics to avoid following the terms laid in the initial paperwork signed by all parties.
The Chinese expatriates also claimed that they were arrested, detained and detained for weeks without charges, during which Nigerian police officers tortured them in custody. The UK court said it was satisfied with the evidence submitted by the Chinese before awarding them nearly $60 million.
Reacting to the development the Federal government kicked against the seizures saying it was not under any contract obligation with Zhongshan.
“The Federal Government is not under any contractual obligation with the company. The case in which Zhongshan is trying to use every unorthodox means to strip our offshore assets is between the company and the Ogun State Government,” said a statement signed by Bayo Onanuga, President Bola Tinubu’s adviser on information and strategy.
“The federal government is fully aware of efforts being made by the Ogun state government to reach an amicable resolution to the matter.
“It must be said without any equivocation that Zhongshan has no solid ground to demand restitution from the Ogun State Government based on the facts regarding the 2007 contract between the company and the State Government to manage a free-trade zone. When the contract with Ogun State was revoked in 2015, the company had only erected a perimeter fence on the land earmarked for a free trade zone.
“While the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice are working with the Ogun State Government on an amicable resolution, Zhongshan obtained two orders from the Judicial Court of Paris dated March 7, 2024, and August 12, 2024, without any notice being duly served on the Federal Government of Nigeria and Ogun State Government.
“This arm-twisting tactic by the Chinese company is the latest in a long list of failed moves to attach Nigerian government-owned assets to foreign jurisdictions.
“Undoubtedly, Zhongshan withheld vital information and misled the Judicial Court in Paris into attaching the Nigerian government’s presidential jets, which are on routine maintenance in France. The use and nature of the Presidential jets as assets of a Sovereign entity whose assets are protected by diplomatic immunity forbid any foreign Court from issuing an order against them.”
