The federal government says presidential aircraft are sovereign assets immune from seizure over a contractual dispute.
The government’s position comes after a US appeal court
ruled that Nigeria’s claim to sovereign immunity, in its dispute with a Chinese
firm, cannot stand in a commercial venture.
BACKROUND
Recently, a Paris court in France ordered the seizure of
three jets belonging to the Nigerian government following an arbitral award to
Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd, a Chinese firm.
The court ruled that the firm should use the three jets at
the Paris-Le Bourget and Basel-Mulhouse international airports “as security for
its claim of EUR 74,459,221”.
The presidency and the Ogun state government had accused the
firm of attempting to fraudulently acquire Nigeria’s offshore assets.
In a statement on Thursday, Kamarudeen Ogundele, a media
aide of Lateef Fagbemi, attorney-general of the federation (AGF), said the AGF
and national security adviser (NSA) have commenced steps to set the order
aside.
“We wish to clarify
that, though the dispute originated from engagements of Ogun state government,
however, the consequential enforcement actions are being directed against the
federal government and its assets in line with extant principles of international
law which holds that the actions of a subnational or local entity are
attributable to the state or country itself,” the statement reads.
“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 aircrafts, 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 aircrafts in question are sovereign assets used
solely for sovereign purposes and are therefore immune from attachment as
Zhongshan has sought to do.”
ZHONGSHAN FUCHENG VS
NIGERIA
In 2010, Zhongshan, through Zhuhai Zhongfu Industrial Group
Co. Ltd. (Zhuhai), its Chinese parent company, acquired rights to develop a
free trade zone in Ogun state.
A year later, Zhongshan set up Zhongfu International
Investment (NIG) FZE (Zhongfu), a Nigerian entity, to manage the project under
the permission of the Ogun state government.
However, things took a different turn in July 2016 when the
investor accused the state government of abruptly moving to terminate its
appointment while attempting to install a new manager for the free trade zone.
Subsequently, Zhongfu 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 had ruled that Nigeria was in breach of its
obligations under the China-Nigeria BIT and awarded Zhongshan compensation of
around $70 million.
In January 2022, the Chinese company initiated a case to
seek enforcement of the arbitration award.
Nigeria pleaded state immunity but was turned away by Sara
Cockerill, a high court judge in the UK, who said the country abused the time
frame for appealing arbitral awards.
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