Former Governor Ibikunle Amosun has made some confessions about the legal battle between Nigerian and Chinese investors that led to the seizure of the three presidential aircraft.

On Saturday, August 17, 2024, Amosun revealed that he was deceived into handing over a free trade facility in Ogun State to an investment group from China.

Amosun, who served as the governor of Ogun State from 2011 to 2019, admitted in a statement personally signed by him that he did not conduct a thorough assessment of facts before allowing a Chinese team to take over the Ogun-Guandong Free Trade Zone in 2012.

His confession comes after a court in France ordered the seizure of three Nigerian presidential aircraft valued at $100 million, namely the Dassault Falcon 7X in Paris and a Boeing 737 and Airbus A330 undergoing maintenance in Switzerland.

The dispute stems from a 2001 bilateral investment treaty between China and Nigeria, which led to Zhongshan’s involvement in the Ogun Guangdong Free Trade Zone (OGFTZ) project. However, Ogun terminated the contract in 2016, sparking a legal battle.

Reports indicate that the free trade zone was conceived in 2007 between Ogun State under Governor Gbenga Daniel and Guangdong Xinguang International China Africa Investment Ltd (or China Africa) to facilitate seamless trade between Nigeria and China in Igbesa, Ogun State. China Africa, the major investor at 60 percent stake, was developing the 10,000 hectare facility when, in 2012, a year after Amosun assumed office, another firm identifying itself as Zhongfu International Investment Ltd came in with claims about poor administration and sought to manage it.

In his statement, Amosun stated that he later asked Zhongfu investors to take over as the interim managers of the trade zone before his administration could find time to investigate the allegations.

“Zhongfu International Investment FXE, pretending to be a concerned and genuine tenant and Zone stakeholder, volunteered very damaging and destructive information about the official representatives of Guangdong Province, the Joint Venturer and lawful Zone Managers, China Africa Investment FXE, and subsequently requested to be appointed as Interim Zone Managers.

“Based on the information at the government’s disposal at the time, Zhongfu International Investment FXE was appointed interim zone manager on March 15, 2012, pending further evaluation. The whole idea was to ensure that someone was in charge and thereby prevent unwholesome and untoward development in the zone pending the completion of our fact-finding exercise.

“It was later discovered that the information and claims volunteered by Zhongfu International Investment FXE against China Africa Investment FXE were tissues of lies.

“Unknown to the Ogun government at the time, Zhongfu International Investment FXE merely sought to de-market China Africa Investment FXE and to surreptitiously covert the state-owned assets of Guangdong Province in China together with the zone ownership and management rights of their business rival,” Mr Amosun said.

“It was further discovered - much later – through the intervention of the Chinese Government via Diplomatic Note 1601, dated March 11, 2016,” Mr Amosun said.

The former governor also claimed that the Chinese government informed him that the company he had terminated was the rightful owner of the investment.

According to Amosun, after he cancelled Zhongfu International Investment, the company approached Nigerian courts in different jurisdictions to ventilate its legal and business rights but lost all four cases filed.

Amosun advised the federal government and Ogun State to desist from entering into any resolutions that would benefit Zhongfu.

“Nigeria should not give Zhongfu International Investment FXE any listening ear, as doing so would amount to indulging and, encouraging an unlawful entity without locus standi to appropriate our common patrimon,” Amosun said. “This matter of Zhongfu International Investment FXE should be treated the way Nigeria treated the P&ID case. There is no basis for negotiation.”

In 2021, an arbitration tribunal ruled in favour of Zhongshan, awarding $70 million in damages. The UK Court of Appeal upheld the decision in 2023.

BS