Ogun: Chinese firm misled French court on Nigerian assets seizure — we weren’t notified of order

The Ogun state government says it was not notified of the order which granted Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd the right to seize Nigeria’s presidential jets.

A Paris court recently ordered the seizure of three jets belonging to the Nigerian government over a dispute involving an arbitration award in favour of the Chinese firm.

The court ruled that the firm should use the three jets at the Paris-Le Bourget and Basel-Mulhouse international airports “as security for its claim of EUR 74,459,221”.

Reacting in a statement on Thursday, Kayode Akinmade, special adviser to the governor on media and strategy, said the firm “misled” the Paris court which granted the order.

He said the company only built a perimeter fence around the free-trade zone.

“This is the latest in a series of ill-advised attempts by Zhongshan to attach Nigerian-owned assets in foreign jurisdictions, none of which have to date led to the recovery of any sums from Nigeria,” the statement reads.

“Each of the three aircraft is used solely for sovereign purposes and as such are immune from attachment under international and French laws. In obtaining the provisional attachments, Zhongshan deliberately withheld information from the Federal Government of Nigeria, Ogun state and their legal counsel.

“Just like the P&ID case, this is another unfortunate case of unscrupulous individuals masquerading as foreign investors with the sole aim of defrauding Ogun State and Nigeria.

“It should be recalled that the underlying contract between Ogun State and Zhongshan was executed in 2007, 12 years before the present administration, 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 USD against the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) 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.

“The present state administration could not in all good conscience allow such an unconscionable and baseless decision, which would dissipate the commonwealth of the good people of Ogun state, to stand.”

Akinmade added that the federal and Ogun state governments had resisted the enforcement of the order.

“The resistance was successful in 8 different jurisdictions. Currently, there are pending appeals against recognition orders issued in both the US and UK,” he said.