French court orders seizure of 3 Nigerian presidential planes

A French court has ordered the seizure of three presidential planes with ties to the federal government.

According to Financial Time, the planes were seized at the request of Zhongshan, a Chinese company whose contract to manage the export processing zone was revoked by the Ogun State government in 2016.

The three seized fighter jets are a Dassault Falcon 7X, a Boeing 737-7N6/BBJ and an Airbus A330-243 belonging to the Federal Government of Nigeria, based at Paris-Le Bourget and Basel-Mulhouse airports.

The ruling is the latest arbitration case against Nigeria by a foreign company, which claims Africa’s most populous country has failed to honour an agreement.

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In 2013, Zhongfu, a subsidiary of Chinese investment company Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment, and the Ogun State Government signed a contract to develop a free trade zone.

Under the terms of the agreement, Zhongfu would own 60 percent of the joint venture.

However, three years later, Zhongfu claimed that Ogun had pulled out of the deal and wanted to take over the “significant” Chinese investment in the free trade zone.

The company said a “campaign of illegal acts” against it ultimately led to it withdrawing from the agreement.

Zhongshan initiated arbitration proceedings against Nigeria in 2018. A three-person arbitration panel in London awarded the company $70 million in damages, to be paid by the federal government in 2021. The award has since grown to approximately $81 million with interest.

“It is clear that Zhongsan is the de facto winner in this arbitration proceeding because it has proven its version of events to be correct, successfully resisted Nigeria’s jurisdictional and preliminary objections, demonstrated that it has a valid claim against Nigeria under the Convention, and obtained compensation for substantial harm,” the arbitration panel wrote.

The Financial Times quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying that Zhongshan had filed the enforcement notice in Paris court because the planes were parked in France.

The federal government has not yet commented on the matter.