There are indications a French court has granted an order for the confiscation of of three presidential jets linked to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The indications to that effect emerged on Wednesday as the court’s decision comes following a legal action filed by Zhongshan, a Chinese company, demanding the payment of a $74.5 million compensation award.
It was learnt the order seeks to ensure that the firm collects its money the debtor – state, Ogun State.
A report by the Premium Times, stated that the court granted the order in a ruling on the lawsuit.
The seized presidential jets include a Dassault Falcon 7X at Le Bourget airport in Paris, a Boeing 737, and an Airbus 330 at Basel-Mulhouse airport in Switzerland.
The implications of the ruling is far reaching. It restrained the Federal Government of Nigeria from moving or selling the jets until one of its generating States, Ogun State, pays Zhongshan the awarded $74.5 million compensation.
This confiscation of planes also followed the recent seizure of Nigerian-owned buildings in Liverpool, England, by a UK court regarding the same dispute with Zhongshan. The properties against which Zhongshan secured charging orders are located at 15 Aigburth Hall Road, Liverpool and Beech Lodge, 49 Calderstones Road, Liverpool, estimated by the company to be worth between £1.3 and £1.7 million.
Recall that the Chinese firm had approached the court seeking an order compelling Nigeria to pay a $70 million investment treaty award. The trouble began in 2010 when Zhongshan, through Zhuhai Zhongfu Industrial Group Co. Ltd (Zhuhai), its Chinese parent company, acquired rights to develop a free trade zone in Ogun state.
A year later, Zhongshan set up Zhongfu International Investment (NIG) FZE (Zhongfu), a Nigerian entity, to manage the project under the permission of the Ogun state government. However, in July 2016, the company accused the state government of abruptly moving to terminate its appointment while attempting to install a new manager for the free trade zone.
Subsequently, Zhongfu initiated an investment treaty arbitration against Nigeria under the bilateral investment treaty between the People’s Republic of China and Nigeria (the China-Nigeria BIT). The arbitrators ruled that Nigeria was in breach of its obligations under the China-Nigeria BIT and awarded Zhongshan compensation of around $70 million.
In January 2022, the Chinese company initiated a case to seek enforcement of the arbitration award. Nigeria pleaded state immunity but was turned away by Sara Cockerill, a high court judge, who said the country abused the time frame for appealing arbitral awards.
But Ogun State Government has faulted the judicial process that led to the provisional attachment of three Nigerian government owned aircrafts in France by the Judicial Court of Paris on 7th March and 2nd August, 2024.
It would be recalled that a Chinese company, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd, had sought several orders from the court over an aborted underlying contract between the company and Ogun State Government, which was initiated in 2007.
In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Strategy, Hon. Kayode Akinmade, the Ogun State government described the latest development as the new antics by the Chinese company to appropriate Nigerian assets in foreign jurisdictions, as past efforts had continually failed.
The statement described the whole legal process as nothing but a total charade with fraudulent notion, adding that the company deliberately concealed the litigation from both the Nigerian government and Ogun State, as well as their legal counsels before hurriedly securing orders of seizure.
It added that the company must have misled the Judicial Court of Paris as to the use and nature of the assets it sought to attach and not made full disclosure to the court as required by law.
According to the statement, Ogun State, together with the Federal Government, had already taken immediate action to ensure that those provisional attachments are lifted quickly, even as it accused the company of reneging on the earlier discussion for an amicable resolution of the case.
It likened the case to that of P&ID, describing it as very unfortunate case of unscrupulous individuals masquerading as foreign investors with the sole aim of defrauding Ogun State and Nigeria at large.
The statement said: “On 14 August 2024, the attention of the Ogun State Government was drawn to the provisional attachment of three Nigerian government owned aircraft in France by the Chinese company, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd. (Zhongshan). Ogun State also learned of two orders of the Judicial Court of Paris dated 7 March 2024 and 12 August 2024 respectively, both obtained by Zhongshan without notice being duly given to the Federal Government or Nigeria, Ogun State or their legal counsel.
“This is the latest in a series of ill-advised attempts by Zhongshan to attach Nigerian-owned assets in foreign jurisdictions, none of which have to date led to the recovery of any sums from Nigeria.
“Each of the three aircraft is used solely for sovereign purposes and as such are immune from attachment under international and French laws. In obtaining the provisional attachments, Zhongshan deliberately withheld information from the Federal Government of Nigeria, Ogun State and their legal counsel.
“Just like the P&ID case, this is another unfortunate case of unscrupulous individuals masquerading as foreign investors with the sole aim of defrauding Ogun State and Nigeria.
“It should be recalled that the underlying contract between Ogun State and Zhongshan was executed in 2007, 12 years before the present administration, for the management of a free-trade zone. The parties entered into a dispute in 2015 with arbitration commencing in 2016.
“By 2019, when the current State Administration took office, the hearing at the arbitration had been all but concluded. The Arbitral Panel awarded over 60 million USD against the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) which was a co-Defendant, when all Zhongshan had done was to build a perimeter fence around the free-trade zone. Needless to say this was a bad/unfair decision.
“The present State Administration could not in all good conscience allow such an unconscionable and baseless decision, which would dissipate the commonwealth of the good people of Ogun State, to stand.
“Accordingly, and based on erudite legal advice, this Administration resolved to resist the enforcement of the award. The resistance was successful in 8 different jurisdictions. Currently, there are pending appeals against recognition orders issued in both the US and UK,” the statement read.
