President Bola Tinubu’s government has vowed to fight tooth and nail to stop Chinese investors from seizing Nigeria’s presidential jets in France.

Specifically, Lateef Fagbemi, the attorney general of the federation and justice minister, argued that the aircraft on the presidential fleet are sovereign assets used solely for sovereign purposes and are, therefore, immune from attachment by any entity.

Mr Fagbemi said this in a statement issued on Thursday.

He said this followed an interim attachment of three presidential aircraft undergoing routine maintenance in France made pursuant to ex parte orders issued by the Judicial Court of Paris.

“The actions by France, it would be recalled was on account of alleged debt owed it by the Nigerian government. The Office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, and the attorney general of the federation, AGF, and minister of justice are currently weighing both diplomatic and legal means.

“They have set in motion both legal and diplomatic steps to ensure the discharge of the inappropriate orders against the aircraft, 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 aircraft in question are sovereign assets used solely for sovereign purposes and are therefore immune from attachment as Zhongshan has sought to do,” said the statement.

He said the orders were dated March 7 and August 12, 2024, at the instance of Zhongshan Industrial Investment Company Limited, a Chinese company seeking to enforce a final award granted in its favour on March 26, 2024, against the Ogun government.

The arbitral award arose from an arbitration proceeding commenced in 2018 following a contractual dispute between the Chinese company and the Ogun government.

The claimants say that though the dispute originated from engagements of the Ogun government, the consequential enforcement actions are being directed against the federal government and its assets.

It claimed that this was in line with the extant principles of international law, which hold that the actions of a substantial or local entity are attributable to the state or country itself.  

Meanwhile, an appellate court in the United States has rejected Nigeria’s sovereign immunity and authorised a Chinese consortium to proceed with its efforts to confiscate Nigeria’s assets abroad, aggravating a crisis that President Bola Tinubu has been trying to manage in Europe and prevent from spilling to other jurisdictions.  

The decision on August 9, 2024, came after judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Washington found that Nigeria had gruesomely violated both the fundamental and commercial rights of executives at a Chinese firm that had entered into a trade zone agreement with Nigeria. 

(NAN)