US Court Backs Chinese Company To Seize Nigerian Jets

An appellate court in the United States has authorised a Chinese company to go ahead with the seizure of Nigerian assets.

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

The Chinese workers of Zhongshan had approached the U.S. judicial system to retrieve an outstanding arbitration award for breach of contract after initially winning their case in the United Kingdom in 2021.

The Chinese expatriates were awarded $55.6 million in compensation from Nigeria and $75,000 in moral damages, alongside interest and legal and arbitration fees, court filings said.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian government through its spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga has accused a Chinese company of mounting a campaign to seize its assets overseas, including presidential jets.

The dispute stems from a 2007 contract between Zhongshan and Nigeria’s southwestern Ogun State to develop a free trade zone, which was terminated in 2015.

Onanuga said when the Ogun State contract was revoked in 2015, Zhongshan had done no more than erect a perimeter fence on the land earmarked for the free trade zone.

As the case was mentioned on Thursday, Nigeria argued before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington that its sovereign immunity forbade the matter from being entertained in a U.S. court.

However, the federal judge denied Nigeria’s argument, saying the country is a signatory to the New York Convention that allowed arbitration between persons, which may include a sovereign entity.