Chinese firm agrees to release one of Nigeria’s seized presidential jets

Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd, a Chinese firm, says it has agreed to release one of Nigeria’s seized presidential jets.

A French court recently ordered the seizure of three presidential jets belonging to Nigeria over a contract dispute between the Chinese firm and Ogun state government.

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

A United States appeal court had also ruled that Nigeria’s claim to sovereign immunity cannot stand in a commercial venture.

The court rejected Nigeria’s sovereign immunity defence to the enforcement of a $70 million investment treaty award won by Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd., a Chinese investor, in a free trade zone.

The presidency and the Ogun state government had accused the firm of “attempting to fraudulently acquire Nigeria’s offshore assets”.

Earlier, the firm said it is ready for a resolution of its dispute with Nigeria.

On Friday, a spokesperson for the firm told Premium Times that the firm has been informed that President Bola Tinubu needs one of the seized jets — Airbus A330 — to travel for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

“Zhongshan has consistently sought to act reasonably and fairly in the course of a legal dispute with Nigeria which was not of its making,” the official said.

“It (Zhongshan) has now been made aware that an Airbus A330, currently detained in France as a result of a French court order obtained by Zhongshan, is needed for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to travel to a scheduled meeting with President Macron of France early next week.

“As a gesture of goodwill, Zhongshan has lifted the seizure of that aircraft immediately. This will allow it to be used for the President’s trip.

“Zhongshan remains committed to talks with representatives of the Federal Government of Nigeria, this time serious and substantive on both sides, with a view to reaching a reasonable compromise settlement rapidly.”

The company did not disclose the time the other two presidential jets with be released.

BACKGROUND

In 2010, 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 with the permission of the Ogun state government.

However, things took a different turn in July 2016 when the investor 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 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 had ruled that Nigeria was in breach of its obligations under the China-Nigeria BIT and awarded Zhongshan a compensation of around $70 million.

In January 2022, the company Initiated a case to seek enforcement of the arbitration award.

Nigeria pleaded state immunity which was rejected by Sara Cockerill, a high court judge in the UK, who said the country “abused the time frame for appealing arbitral awards”.