The offices of the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), and the National Security Adviser (NSA) have began legal steps to recover three presidential aircraft temporarily seized by a Paris court order in France.
Kamarudeen Ogundele, spokesperson to the AGF made this known in a statement.
The presidency had earlier raised concerns about an attempt by Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, a Chinese firm, to fraudulently seize Nigeria’s presidential jets and other offshore assets through a court case in Paris, France.
According to the statement, the Federal Government of Nigeria became aware of the interim attachment of three presidential aircraft undergoing routine maintenance in France on August 14, 2024.
An attachment is a court order seizing specific property as requested by a party.
Ogundele confirmed that the temporary attachment was made pursuant to ex parte orders issued by the Judicial Court of Paris on March 7, 2024, and August 12, 2024, respectively, at the instance of Messrs Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, a Chinese company seeking to enforce a Final Award granted in its favor on March 26, 2021, against one of Nigeria’s sub-nationals, Ogun State.
“We wish to clarify that, though the dispute originated from engagements with the Ogun State Government, the consequential enforcement actions are being directed against the Federal Government and its assets in line with extant principles of international law, which hold that the actions of a subnational or local entity are attributable to the State or country itself.”
“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 aircraft in question are sovereign assets used solely for sovereign purposes and are therefore immune from attachment as Zhongshan has sought to do,” the statement read.
