A Chinese firm, Zhongshang Fucheng Industrial Investment Ltd., has finalised the repossession of a luxury jet owned by the Nigerian government in Canada.
A report by Peoples Gazette indicated that Zhongshang recently received a change of custodian paperwork for the Bombardier 6000 type BD-700-1A10 aircraft from Canadian authorities in Montreal after a Canadian court issued a judgement that empowered the firm to seize the jet from Nigeria.
“The court granted orders for Zhongshang to seize the plane earlier this year, but the change of custody from Nigeria to Zhongshang was only recently concluded,” a person familiar with Zhongshang’s activities said anonymously.
“Zhongshang will not stop seizing Nigeria’s assets worldwide until the last cent of the arbitration awards has been paid.”
According to the report, Judge David Collier of the Superior Court of Quebec quashed Nigeria’s arguments to keep ownership of the aircraft on March 21, 2024.
Records showed the aircraft was purchased for $57 million by fugitive Dan Etete as part of his spending binge shortly after netting over $350 million windfall from the lucrative but corrupt sale of the OPL 245 oil field in 2010.
The report said Nigeria first seized the aircraft from Etete in 2016 and trapped it in Dubai, disclosing that flight tracking websites showed it was then flown suddenly to Canada on May 29, 2020, where Nigeria quickly obtained a court order for seizure and held it at the main airport in Montreal.
However, a Canadian firm, Tibit, had sought to claim ownership, but Canadian courts allowed Nigeria to remain in charge of the aircraft.
Explaining further, the report said Zhongshang moved in 2023 to seize the jet while pursuing enforcement of its arbitration awards of over $70 million against Nigeria.
Judge Collier said Nigeria failed to enter into a dispute against the aircraft’s seizure by Zhongshang, declaring the country’s argument that it could not respond to the lawsuit for nine months over the February-March 2023 general elections was frivolous and unacceptable.
The judge also rejected Nigeria’s sovereign immunity claim along the lines already itemised by the arbitration panel and courts in the United Kingdom.
An appellate court in the United States also recently ruled that Nigeria cannot claim sovereign immunity from Zhongshang’s recovery of its arbitration judgement.
With the latest development, Zhongshang has successfully seized Nigeria’s assets in the UK, France and Canada.
The firm is also reportedly expecting more seizures in Belgium and the U.S. in the coming weeks, according to the report.
The case resulted from a dispute between Zhongshang and Ogun State.
The Chinese 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.
Although Nigeria has lost all its challenges against Chinese investors in at least five countries, it has maintained no wrongdoing in the lawsuits.
