The Ogun State Government on Thursday, confirmed the seizure of three Nigerian government presidential aircraft by a recent ruling of a French court.
A French court had grounded the jets over a contract disagreement between the Ogun State Government and Zhongshan, a Chinese company that had entered into a contractual agreement with the state government.
The contract reportedly turned South, forcing the State Government to revoke the contract in 2016.
Upon the disagreement, the Chinese firm dragged both the state government and the Federal Government to court, an action that compelled the French court to seize the three presidential aircraft in its domain.
Recall that an independent tribunal had awarded Zhongshan about $74.5 million in compensation, but the Ogun State Government, which has a dispute with Zhongshan, has yet to honour the award.
In a swift reaction, the state government described the judicial action as unfair, threatening to vacate the order.
In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to Governor Dapo Abiodun on Media and Strategy, Kayode Akinmade, the State government described the development as a new antics by the Chinese company to appropriate Nigerian assets in foreign jurisdictions, as past efforts had continually failed.
The statement reads in part, “Each of the three aircraft is used solely for sovereign purposes and as such, are immune from attachment under international and French law. In obtaining the provisional attachments, Zhongshan deliberately withheld information from the Federal Government of Nigeria, Ogun State and their legal counsel.”
Akinmade further claimed that Zhongshan misled the Paris court over the nature and use of the asset seized.
“Shockingly, it also appears to have misled the Judicial Court of Paris as to the use and nature of the assets it seeks to attach and not made full disclosure to the court as required by law.
“Ogun State in conjunction with the Federal Government of Nigeria, has taken swift action to ensure that these provisional attachments are lifted without delay,” it added.
The government likened the matter to that of the the P&ID case, noting that “This is another unfortunate case of unscrupulous individuals masquerading as foreign investors with the sole aim of defrauding Ogun State and Nigeria.”
Akinmade recalled that the contract between the State and Zhongshan was executed in 2007, 12 years before the Dapo Abiodun-led government “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 against the Federal Government of Nigeria 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.”