The Presidency has broken its silence on a French Court for the seizure of three Nigerian Presidential jets.
Citing Financial Times, Daily Trust had reported how the court ordered seizure of the aircraft over a botched deal between the Ogun State government and a Chinese company.
The jets listed for seizure are a Dassault Falcon 7X, a Boeing 737-7N6/BBJ and an Airbus A330-243 stationed at Paris-Le Bourget and Basel-Mulhouse airports.
Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, a Chinese company whose export processing zone management contract was revoked by the Ogun State government in 2016, had approached the court.
Responding in a statement issued by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, the Presidency accused the company of misleading the court.
According to Onanuga, Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, is working with the Ogun government to quash the case.
“The Presidency is aware of the various failed attempts by a Chinese company, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, to take over offshore assets of the Federal Government of Nigeria through subterfuge.
“The federal government 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.
“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.
“When the contract with Ogun State was revoked in 2015, the company had only erected a perimeter fence on the land earmarked for a free trade zone.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.
“This arm-twisting tactic by the Chinese company is the latest in a long list of failed moves to attach 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.
“This same Chinese company had tried to enforce its questionable judgment in the UK and USA but failed.
“We want to assure Nigerians that the federal government is working with the Ogun State government to discharge this frivolous order in Paris immediately.”
Meanwhile, the Ogun State government, on Thursday, faulted the judicial process that led to the provisional attachment of three Nigerian government owned aircraft in France by the Judicial Court of Paris on 7th March and 2nd August, 2024.
In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Strategy, 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.
Relatedly, the federal government has explained that the attachment of three presidential aircraft in the enforcement of an arbitral award by a Chinese company is “inappropriate.”
In a statement on Thursday signed by Kamarudeen Ogundele, the media aide to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), the government said the offices of the National Security Adviser and the Attorney-General of the Federation, have already set in motion both legal and diplomatic steps to ensure the discharge of the inappropriate orders against the aircraft.
The government acknowledged that though the order was being enforced 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 aircraft being attached are covered by sovereign immunity.
“While further actions are being put in place to resolve the entire dispute through available legal means, the firm position of the federal government remains that the aircrafts in question are sovereign assets used solely for sovereign purposes and are therefore immune from attachment as Zhongshan has sought to do,” the statement reads.
Reacting, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in last year’s elections, Peter Obi, has faulted President Tinubu’s administration over the seizure of some presidential fleets by foreign business partners.
Obi on Thursday on his X handle said the development is an international embarrassment, accusing the Tinubu government of operating in secrecy and running the government like a personal family asset.
He also said the development has exposed the failed leadership in Nigeria and the mismanagement of the country’s resources while a large portion of the citizens continue to languish in poverty.
He, therefore, challenged the federal government to come clean and transparent on this matter and tell Nigerians how the nation got to this latest international mess.
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