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By Babajide Okeowo and Adewale Ilesanmi
There is an uproar over the seizure of three presidential jets belonging to the Nigerian presidential fleet by a French court.
This is even as a diplomatic row looms large between Nigeria and China over the development which has been termed an international embarrassment in many quarters.
The Matrix reports that a Paris court recently ordered the seizure of three jets belonging to the Nigerian government over a dispute involving an arbitration award in favour of ZhongshanFucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd., a Chinese firm.
The seized jets include a Dassault Falcon 7X in Paris, a Boeing 737, and an Airbus A330 valued at over $100 million. The latter two are currently undergoing maintenance in Switzerland.
The court ruled that the Chinese firm should use the three jets at the Paris-Le Bourget and Basel-Mulhouse international airports “as security for its claim of EUR 74,459,221”.
The legal battle stems from a 2010 agreement in which Zhongshan, through its parent company Zhuhai Zhongfu Industrial Group Co. Ltd, secured rights to develop a free trade zone in Ogun State, Nigeria.
In 2011, Zhongshan established a Nigerian entity, Zhongfu International Investment (NIG) FZE, to manage the project under the authority of the Ogun State government.
However, tensions escalated in July 2016 when Zhongfu accused the state government of abruptly terminating its appointment and attempting to install a new manager for the free trade zone.
The dispute led to Zhongfu initiating an investment treaty arbitration under the bilateral investment treaty between China and Nigeria (the China-Nigeria BIT).
The arbitration tribunal ruled in favor of Zhongshan, awarding the company approximately $70 million in compensation, citing Nigeria’s breach of its obligations under the BIT.
In January 2022, Zhongshan sought to enforce the arbitration award in the UK courts.
Nigeria argued for state immunity, but this defense was rejected by High Court Judge Sara Cockerill, who ruled that Nigeria had abused the time frame for appealing the arbitral award.
In July 2023, the UK Court of Appeal upheld the $70 million arbitration award in favor of Zhongshan.
All efforts by the Ogun State and Nigeria legal team to overturn the judgement are yet to be successful.
Reacting to the seizure order, Obi, in a statement by Yunusa Tanko, his campaign spokesperson, said this has exposed the federal government’s disregard for the rule of law and failure of leadership.
“The trending international news on the seizure of three jets belonging to Nigeria’s presidential fleet is yet another of many embarrassing things exposing our failed leadership and our attitude to the rule of law even in a democracy,” the statement reads.
“It has also exposed multiple dimensions to our leadership failure and our insensitivity to the plight of the growing poor class in our midst.
“I have been loud in my demand over time that the government at all levels should be accountable to the people, meaning that they must be very transparent in all their dealings.
“Until a court in France prohibits Nigeria from moving or selling these three jets, Nigerians have no iota of information about both the buying and selling of these aircraft.
“It has been done in secrecy. Federal government property, which belongs to the people, is being managed as a personal family asset.
“Paying as much as $100 million for a presidential jet for a country that is the poverty capital of the world and has more out-of-school children with over 40% food inflation is the height of concern for the people’s feelings.
“This incident has also opened up an aspect of indiscipline that is copiously embedded in our country, which is the abuse and disrespect for the rule of law.
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“Here are questions begging for answers: To what extent did the Ogun government follow its agreement with the Chinese firm?
“After the UK court ruling that prohibited some Nigerian buildings in Liverpool, what did both Ogun state and the federal government do before the French court action?
“I would like to, therefore, challenge the federal government to come clean and transparent on this matter and tell Nigerians how we got to this latest international mess.”
Meanwhile, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga has disclosed that 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.
He noted that the Federal Government is fully aware of efforts being made by the Ogun State Government to reach an amicable resolution on 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,” Onanuga said.
Onanuga revealed that as at the time 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 is 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,” he added.
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“This arm-twisting tactic by the Chinese company is the latest in a long list of failed moves to attack Nigerian government-owned assets in foreign jurisdictions.
“The material facts in the transaction between the Ogun State Government and Zhongshan point to another P&ID case in which unscrupulous and questionable individuals falsely present themselves as investors with the sole objective of undercutting and scamming Governments in Africa.
“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.
“We are convinced the Chinese company misled the Judicial Court of Paris regarding the use and nature of the assets it seeks to attach and did not fully disclose to the court as required by law.”
He stated that the same Chinese company had tried to enforce its questionable judgment in the UK and USA but failed.
” Like the P&ID case, foreign companies are trying to defraud Nigeria with the collaboration of some bureaucrats. Zhongshan appeared to have sold the judgment they got to a venture capitalist seeking to make money by embarrassing the Federal Government and President Bola Tinubu.
The Presidency assured Nigerians that the Federal Government is working with the Ogun State Government to discharge this frivolous order in Paris immediately.
“Nigerian Government will always work to protect our national assets from predators and shylocks who masquerade as investors.
In a related development, the Federal Government says legal and diplomatic efforts are ongoing to recover the seized presidential jets.
The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, stated this in a statement on Thursday through his spokesman, Kamarudeen Ogundele.
The AGF described as inappropriate, court orders against three presidential aircraft undergoing routine maintenance in France.
He said that the Federal Government became aware of the interim attachment of the aircraft on Wednesday, August 14, 2024.
“It is to be noted that the arbitral award arose from an arbitration proceeding which commenced in 2018 as a fallout of a contractual dispute between the Chinese company and Ogun State Government over the operation and management of Ogun Guangdong Free Trade Zone.
“We wish to clarify that, though the dispute originated from engagements of Ogun State Government, however, the consequential enforcement actions are being directed against the Federal Government and its assets in line with extant principles of international law which holds that the actions of a subnational or local entity are attributable to the State or country itself,” the AGF stated.
The Federal Government said that while further actions are being put in place to resolve the entire dispute through available legal means, its firm position remained that the aircraft in question are sovereign assets used solely for sovereign purposes and are therefore immune from attachment as Zhongshan has sought to do.
