Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, a Chinese firm, has released one of Nigeria’s seized presidential jets. The company had obtained a court order to confiscate three Nigerian presidential jets pending payment of $74.5 million awarded to it against Nigeria. However, the company released the aircraft to allow President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to travel to a scheduled meeting with President Macron of France.
According to the company’s spokesperson, “Zhongshan has consistently sought to act reasonably and fairly in the course of a legal dispute with Nigeria which was not of its making.” He added, “It (Zhongshan) has now been made aware that an Airbus A330, currently detained in France as a result of a French court order obtained by Zhongshan, is needed for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to travel to a scheduled meeting with President Macron of France early next week. As a gesture of goodwill, Zhongshan has lifted the seizure of that aircraft immediately.”
The Nigerian government had been working to quash the court order, with the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, stating, “The Presidency is aware of the various failed attempts by a Chinese company, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, to take over offshore assets of the Federal Government of Nigeria through subterfuge.” He emphasized that the federal government is not under any contractual obligation with the company and that the case is between Zhongshan and the Ogun State Government.
Onanuga accused Zhongshan of using “arm-twisting tactics” and withholding vital information from the Judicial Court in Paris. He assured Nigerians that the federal government is working to protect national assets from “predators and shylocks who masquerade as investors.”
