French Court seizes Nigerian Presidential Jet over Ogun State’s $74.5million debt to Chinese firm
Maureen Aguta
Reports emerged on Wednesday indicating that a French court has granted an order for the seizure of three presidential jets linked to the Federal Government of Nigeria. The court’s decision comes as part of a lawsuit filed by Zhongshan, a Chinese company, to ensure the payment of a $74.5 million compensation award.
According to Premium Times, an online newspaper, 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 court’s ruling bars the Federal Government of Nigeria from moving and selling the jets until one of its subnational, Ogun State, pays Zhongshan the awarded $74.5 million compensation. This confiscation of planes follows 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 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.