Rotimi Oguneso, a Nigerian lawyer with ties to President Bola Tinubu, pocketed $170,000 as legal fees for his services on the arbitration panel that awarded $70 million against Nigeria over a botched free trade zone deal involving Ogun state and Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Ltd.

Mr Oguneso, a senior lawyer who defended Bola Tinubu at the presidential election petitions tribunal in 2023, was nominated by Nigeria as its representative on the arbitration panel. Zhongshan nominated Matthew Gearing, a United Kingdom legal practitioner, as its representative on the panel.

David Neuberger, former president of the UK Supreme Court, chaired the three-man panel that sat for about one year between early 2020 and March 26, 2021, when a final decision was issued.

Zhongshang was awarded $55,675,000 plus interest of $9,400,000 and costs of £2,864,445 as of the date of the arbitration verdict on March 26, 2021, court documents said. The case stemmed from a dispute between Zhongshang and Ogun State. The firm said the state violated a 2001 trade treaty between Nigeria and China when its rights to a free trade zone were rescinded in 2016. 

The cost of the arbitration panel was £549,655. Nigeria was ordered to bear all the costs as the losing party. Zhongshan paid £295,000, while Nigeria paid £195,000. Nigeria was ordered to refund Zhongshan.

Nigeria’s Mr Oguneso earned $170,000 while Mr Gearing was paid $155,000, and Mr Neuberger, the panel chair, took the lion’s pay of $273,000.

Having examined the allegations alongside co-arbitrators, Mr Oguneso joined his colleagues on the panel to issue a unanimous judgement that found Nigeria liable in the case brought by the Chinese. 

Consequently, the panel awarded $70 million against Nigeria with two per cent monthly interest that has been accruing since the 2021 judgement.

Mr Oguneso’s concurrence could suggest the case against Nigeria was stronger than the country’s officials were willing to admit. Both federal and Ogun officials have attempted to downplay the arbitration judgement as weak and unenforceable, with former Governor Ibikunle Amosun arguing “there is no basis for negotiation” in a statement over the weekend. 

Nigeria’s legal efforts to wield the sovereign immunity clause have been thrown out in France, Canada, England and the United States, where judges said the arbitration awards can be enforced against the West African nation.

The judgements empowered Zhongshan to go after Nigeria’s assets in those countries expect in the U.S., where no final decision has been made yet on asset seizures. But Zhongshan has already taken possession of Nigeria’s guest houses in the UK and the country’s private jets in France and Canada. 

Nigeria has maintained no wrongdoing in the matter and assured citizens of its efforts to resolve the arbitration payment with the Chinese.