Reports from Wednesday reveal that a French court has ordered the seizure of three presidential jets connected to the Federal Government of Nigeria. This ruling follows a lawsuit filed by Zhongshan, a Chinese company, aimed at securing a $74.5 million compensation award.
According to Premium Times, an online newspaper, the French court issued the seizure order as part of its ruling on the lawsuit. The jets affected include a Dassault Falcon 7X located at Le Bourget airport in Paris, a Boeing 737, and an Airbus A330 at Basel-Mulhouse airport in Switzerland.
The court’s decision prohibits the Federal Government of Nigeria from relocating or selling these jets until Ogun State, one of Nigeria’s subnational entities, settles the $74.5 million compensation awarded to Zhongshan.
This plane confiscation follows a recent UK court decision to seize Nigerian-owned properties in Liverpool as part of the same dispute with Zhongshan. The properties subject to Zhongshan’s charging orders include 15 Aigburth Hall Road and Beech Lodge, 49 Calderstones Road, both in Liverpool. Zhongshan estimates these properties to be worth between £1.3 and £1.7 million.
The conflict began in 2010 when Zhongshan, through its Chinese parent company Zhuhai Zhongfu Industrial Group Co. Ltd, acquired rights to develop a free trade zone in Ogun State. The Chinese firm had sought a court order to compel Nigeria to pay a $70 million investment treaty award.
A year later, Zhongshan established Zhongfu International Investment (NIG) FZE (Zhongfu) as a Nigerian entity to oversee the project with the approval of the Ogun state government. However, in July 2016, Zhongshan accused the state government of abruptly terminating its appointment and attempting to replace it with a new manager for the free trade zone.
In response, Zhongfu initiated arbitration under the bilateral investment treaty between the People’s Republic of China and Nigeria (the China-Nigeria BIT). The arbitration panel found that Nigeria had breached its obligations under the treaty and awarded Zhongshan approximately $70 million in compensation.
In January 2022, Zhongshan filed a case to enforce the arbitration award. Nigeria invoked state immunity as a defense, but High Court Judge Sara Cockerill dismissed the claim, stating that the country had misused the timeframe for appealing arbitral awards.
