The Ogun State government on Thursday, August 15, 2024 criticized the judicial process that led to the provisional attachment of three presidential jets in France by the Judicial Court of Paris on March 7 and August 2, 2024.
The seized jets—a Dassault Falcon 7X, a Boeing 737, and a newly purchased Airbus A330—were undergoing maintenance at Le Bourget airport in Paris and Basel-Mulhouse airport in Switzerland.
In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Strategy, Kayode Akinmade, the Ogun State government described the situation as “the latest in a series of ill-advised attempts by Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd. to attach Nigerian-owned assets in foreign jurisdictions.”
The Ogun State government further stated, “This entire legal process is nothing but a total charade with a fraudulent notion. The Chinese company deliberately concealed the litigation from both the Nigerian government and Ogun State, as well as their legal counsel before hurriedly securing orders of seizure.”
Akinmade added that the company must have “misled the Judicial Court of Paris regarding the use and nature of the assets it sought to attach” and did not make full disclosure to the court as required by law.
The statement emphasized that Ogun State, in collaboration with the Federal Government, has already taken “immediate action to ensure that those provisional attachments are lifted quickly.”
The Ogun State government accused Zhongshan of reneging on earlier discussions aimed at an amicable resolution of the case, comparing the situation to the P&ID case. The statement read, “This is another unfortunate case of unscrupulous individuals masquerading as foreign investors with the sole aim of defrauding Ogun State and Nigeria at large.”
Addressing the dispute’s background, the statement noted, “The underlying contract between Ogun State and Zhongshan was executed in 2007, 12 years before the present administration, for the management of a free-trade zone. The parties entered into a dispute in 2015, with arbitration commencing in 2016.”
Regarding the arbitration outcome, Akinmade remarked, “The Arbitral Panel awarded over 60 million USD against the Federal Government of Nigeria, which was a co-defendant. This decision was entirely unconscionable and baseless, and we could not, in good conscience, allow such a ruling to dissipate the commonwealth of the good people of Ogun State.”
The statement concluded by highlighting the Ogun State administration’s resistance to the enforcement of the award, noting that this resistance was “successful in eight different jurisdictions” and that “pending appeals against recognition orders are currently in place in both the US and UK.”
