The Presidency, on Thursday, took a tough stance on the issue of the three presidential planes currently seized in Paris, the French capital on the orders of that country’s court, saying that like the case of the P&ID case, which had all the trappings of fraud, Nigeria would not only fight, but triumph in the same way by retrieving the jets.
Bayo Onanuga, presidential spokesman, who conveyed the position of Presidency on the matter, informed that Chinese company, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, which instigated the matter was only engaging in arm-twisting and subterfuge in its attempt to confiscate the country’s assets through the back door.
Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, in a statement on Thursday, said: “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“When the contract with Ogun State was revoked in 2015, the company had only erected a perimeter fence on the land earmarked for a free trade zone.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.
“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.
“Like the P&ID case, foreign companies are trying to defraud Nigeria with the collaboration of some bureaucrats. Zhongshan appeared to have sold the judgment they got to a venture capitalist seeking to make money by embarrassing the Federal Government and President Bola Tinubu. We want to assure Nigerians that the Federal Government is working with the Ogun State Government to discharge this frivolous order in Paris immediately. Nigerian Government will always work to protect our national assets from predators and shylocks who masquerade as investors.”
Reports say that after the revocation of a contract between Ogun State and Zhongshan to manage a free-trade zone was executed in 2007, the Chinese firm, launched a legal battle against the Ogun government, in 2015, leading to the commencement of an arbitration began in 2016, at at the end of it in 2019, the Arbitral Panel awarded over $60 million against the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), a co-defendant, even when all Zhongshan had done was build a perimeter fence around the free-trade zone.
Based on legal advice, the Ogun State Government resolved to resist the enforcement of the award, which resulted in success in eight different jurisdictions, but unrelenting, the firm went on appeal on the matter in both the US and UK courts, while the Ogun State on its part, launched settlement discussions on reasonable terms, with a meeting lasting three days held in September 2023 in London, which had in attendance officials of Ogun State, including Governor Dapo Abiodun and the Attorney General/Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi.
It was further reported that the Chinese firm, which had initially agreed to consider a “reasonable offer,” surprisingly reversed its position on the second day, insisting on the government paying the full arbitration debt, a development that led to a breakdown of the mediation, with parties agreeing to meet again in the first quarter of 2024.
But instead of the meeting, the firm, was said to have continued hedging on the matter, while embarking on a series of enforcement proceedings, which the legal team appointed by the FGN and Ogun State successfully opposed and even succeeded in setting aside an ex-parte order, which the company similarly obtained as in the instant case.