French Court Orders Seizure Of Nigeria’s New Presidential Jet

A French court ruled in favour of a Chinese business, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, and ordered the seizure of three Nigerian presidential aeroplanes.

The Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris barred Nigeria from relocating or selling the presidential jets until the Chinese corporation got the awarded $74.5 million.

The court permitted the business to detain three presidential aeroplanes undergoing normal repair in France as “security” for claims in a decades-long legal dispute between the foreign company and the Ogun State government.

According to sources, the confiscated presidential jets are a Dassault Falcon 7X at Le Bourget airport in Paris, a Boeing 737, and an Airbus 330 at Basel-Mulhouse airport in Switzerland.

In 2007, the international corporation obtained a deal with the Ogun State government to run a free-trade zone, but the contract was terminated by the state administration in 2015.

Zhongshan, displeased, filed an investment treaty arbitration against Nigeria under the China-Nigeria bilateral investment treaty (BIT).

The arbitrators found that Nigeria had breached its commitments under the China-Nigeria BIT and awarded Zhongshan millions of dollars in compensation.

The Nigerian government and the subnational appealed the case to “eight” jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and the United States.

The latest jurisdiction is in France, where three Nigerian presidential aeroplanes are undergoing routine repair.

According to reports, the court in Paris held that the seizure of the jets was to “preserve the claim arising from the arbitration award dated 26 March 2021, made by an ad hoc arbitral tribunal”.

But the Nigerian government said it 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 presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga who flayed Zhongshan.

He said he “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”.

A Gentle Reminder: Every obstacle is a stepping stone, every morning; a chance to go again, and those little steps take you closer to your dream.

Nnamdi Okoli