Presidential Jets Seizure: FG Calls Out Chinese Firm’s Alleged Fraudulent Tactics

0

The Federal Government of Nigeria has accused a Chinese company, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, of subterfuge after a French court ruled in favour of the firm and granted the seizure of presidential jets belonging to the Nigerian government.

In a statement on Thursday, presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga alleged that the Chinese firm is trying “to take over offshore assets of the Federal Government of Nigeria through subterfuge”.

In the dispute involving an arbitration award, the court in Paris ruled in favour of the Chinese firm, allowing it to seize three presidential jets on routine maintenance in France as “security” for claims in a decades-long judicial matter between the foreign company and the Ogun State government.

Back in 2007, the foreign firm signed a contract with the Ogun State government to manage a free-trade zone but the contract was revoked by the state government in 2015.

Displeased, Zhongshan 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 amounting to millions of dollars.

The Nigerian government and the subnational appealed the matter in “eight” jurisdictions including the United Kingdom and the United States.

The latest jurisdiction is in France, where three Nigerian presidential jets are on routine maintenance.

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,” Onanuga said, flaying Zhongshan which he said “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“When the contract with Ogun State was revoked in 2015, the company had only erected a perimeter fence on the land earmarked for a free trade zone,” he said.

Leave A Reply

Your email address will not be published.