Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, has stated that his office and that of the National Security Adviser have begun legal and diplomatic efforts to recover three of Nigeria’s presidential jets that were seized in France due to a fine levied against Ogun State.
Kamarudeen Ogundele, Special Adviser to the President on Communication and Publicity, Office of the AGF, made the announcement on Thursday in Abuja.
“The Offices of the National Security Adviser and the Attorney-General of the Federation have already 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,” the statement read in part.”
Recall that a French court had approved the seizure of three of Nigeria’s presidential jets, two of which were part of the country’s presidential air fleet and were recently placed up for sale, and the third, an Airbus 330, which Nigeria had purchased but not yet delivered.
The confiscated presidential jets include a Dassault Falcon 7X at Paris’ Le Bourget airport, a Boeing 737, and an Airbus 330 at Basel-Mulhouse in Switzerland.
All three are presently undergoing maintenance. The Nigerian government reportedly paid more than $100 million for the Airbus.
The planes were confiscated following an application by Zhongshan, a Chinese business whose contract to administer an export processing zone was withdrawn by the Ogun State government in 2016.
Zhongshan had taken the Ogun State government to court, where an independent arbitral panel chaired by the former President of the UK Supreme Court granted him around $74.5 million in compensation, which the Ogun State government has yet to pay.
The court ruling banned Nigeria from relocating or selling the presidential jets until the Chinese corporation Zhongshan was paid the $74.5 million by Ogun State, its sub-nation.
