French court orders seizure of Nigeria's new presidential jet

A French court has ruled in favour of a Chinese company, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, and granted the seizure of three presidential jets belonging to the Nigerian government.

The Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris stopped Nigeria from moving or selling the presidential jets until the Chinese firm received the awarded $74.5 million.

The court allowed the company 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.

According to reports, the seized presidential jets include a Dassault Falcon 7X at Le Bourget airport in Paris, a Boeing 737, and an Airbus 330 at Basel-Mulhouse airport in Switzerland.

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in 2007, the foreign firm signed a contract with the Ogun State government to manage a free-trade zone but the contract was revoked by the state government in 2015.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,” said presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga who flayed Zhongshan.

He said he “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”.