The Federal Government has revealed efforts to recover some presidential jets seized by a Chinese company, Zhongshan.
These are legal and diplomatic means Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), and Minister of Justice,Lateef Fagbemi, disclosed Thursday in a statement through his spokesman, Kamarudeen Ogundele.
Fagbemi said that the three presidential aircraft were undergoing routine maintenance in France when they were seized describing the action as inappropriate.
The AGF said that the Federal Government became aware of the interim attachment of the aircraft on Wednesday, August 14, 2024.
According to the statement, the said temporary attachment was made under ex parte orders issued by the Judicial Court of Paris at the instance of Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, a Chinese company seeking to enforce a final award granted in its favour against one of Nigeria’s sub-nationals, Ogun State government over “the operation and management of Ogun Guangdong Free Trade Zone “
“It is to be noted that the arbitral award arose from an arbitration proceeding which commenced in 2018 as a fallout of a contractual dispute between the Chinese company and Ogun State Government over the operation and management of Ogun Guangdong Free Trade Zone.
“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 holds that while further actions are being put in place to resolve the entire dispute through available legal means, its position remained 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.
