International embarrassment, says Obi as FG moves to recover seized jets

Presidency, Ogun accuse Chinese firm of masterminding seizure

Federal Government, yesterday, accused a Chinese firm, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, of secretly striving to use legal means to take over Nigeria’s assets abroad, over a failed business deal with Ogun State.

“We wish to clarify that, though the dispute originated from engagements with the Ogun State Government, the consequential enforcement actions are being directed against the Federal Government and its assets in line with extant principles of international law, which hold that the actions of a subnational or local entity are attributable to the State or country itself.”

Ogundele disclosed that the AGF and NSA have now commenced legal and diplomatic moves to reclaim Nigeria’s sovereign assets, saying: “The Offices of the National Security Adviser and the Attorney General of the Federation have already set in motion both legal and diplomatic steps to ensure the discharge of the inappropriate orders against the aircraft, which are covered by sovereign immunity.

“While further actions are being put in place to resolve the entire dispute through available legal means, the firm position of the Federal Government remains that the aircraft in question are sovereign assets used solely for sovereign purposes and are therefore immune from attachment as Zhongshan has sought to do.”

Similarly, Ogun State accused the Chinese firm of acting dubiously and fraudulently, even as the former Presidential Candidate of Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, described the order to seize the presidential jests as an international embarrassment.

The Presidency, which raised the alarm through its Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, distanced itself from the company, stating that the Federal Government was not under any contractual obligation with the firm.

The presidential aide, in a statement made available to newsmen, 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.”

It, however, stated that Zhongshan had no grounds to demand restitution from the Ogun State Government based on the facts regarding the 2007 contract between the company and the state 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.

“This arm-twisting tactics by the Chinese company is the latest in a long list of failed moves to attach Nigerian government-owned assets in foreign jurisdictions,” the statement added.

It likened the facts in the transaction between the Ogun State Government and Zhongshan 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”.

“We want to assure Nigerians that the Federal Government is working with the Ogun State Government to discharge this frivolous order in Paris immediately.

ALSO, yesterday, Ogun State Government faulted the judicial process by Zhongshan that led to the provisional attachment of three Nigerian government-owned aircraft in France by the Judicial Court of Paris on March 7 and August 2, 2024.

In a statement, signed by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Strategy, Kayode Akinmade, the state government described the latest development as the new antics by the Chinese company to appropriate Nigerian assets in foreign jurisdictions, as past efforts had continually failed.

The statement described the whole legal process as nothing but a total charade with fraudulent notions, adding that the company deliberately concealed the litigation from Federal Government and Ogun State, as well as their legal counsels, and hurriedly secured orders of seizure.

According to the statement, Ogun State, together with the Federal Government, had already taken immediate action to ensure that those provisional attachments are lifted quickly, even as it accused the company of reneging on the earlier discussion for an amicable resolution of the case.

While describing the order to seize three jets belonging to Nigeria’s presidential fleet as an international embarrassment, Obi said the development exposed Nigeria’s failed leadership and its attitude to the rule of law even in a democracy.

Obi added that the new development had also exposed multiple dimensions to the nation’s leadership failure and its insensitivity to the plight of the growing poor class.

He said: “The fact that the Federal Government went ahead with the jet deal despite the cacophonous cry against the purchase of a presidential jet at this time when the people are going through a horrifying economic hardship shows the insensitivity of this administration.

“Added to it is the embarrassing aspect of our country’s presidential jets being held for contractual breaches arising from yet another dimension of inadequate leadership tidiness.

“It has been done in secrecy. Federal Government property, which belongs to the people, is being managed as a personal family asset. Paying as much as $100m for a presidential jet for a country that is the poverty capital of the world and has more out-of-school children with over 40 per cent food inflation is the height of lack of concern for the people’s feelings.”