Zhongshan, the Chinese firm that obtained a court order to confiscate three Nigerian presidential jets, has released one of the aircraft, a company spokesperson told PREMIUM TIMES.
“Zhongshan has consistently sought to act reasonably and fairly in the course of a legal dispute with Nigeria, which was not of its making,” the official stated on Friday afternoon.
The spokesperson elaborated, “Zhongshan has now been made aware that an Airbus A330, currently detained in France as a result of a French court order obtained by Zhongshan, is needed for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to travel to a scheduled meeting with President Macron of France early next week. As a gesture of goodwill, Zhongshan has lifted the seizure of that aircraft immediately. This will allow it to be used for the President’s trip.”
Despite this gesture, the company did not specify when the two remaining aircraft being detained would be released. Zhongshan officials had previously expressed their willingness to negotiate with the Nigerian government to resolve the impasse that led to the seizure of the three jets.
Earlier this week, PREMIUM TIMES reported that a French court had authorized the seizure of three presidential jets linked to the Federal Government of Nigeria. The court order prohibits the movement, sale, or purchase of the jets until Zhongshan receives the awarded $74.5 million, with bailiffs already serving papers for each aircraft.
Reacting to the development, Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, criticized the French court’s order, describing it as an “arm-twisting tactic” by the Chinese company. Onanuga emphasized that both the federal and Ogun State governments had made various efforts to resolve the issue.
He further accused Zhongshan of withholding vital information and misleading the French court into attaching the Nigerian government’s presidential jets, which were undergoing routine maintenance in France when the court order was issued. “The use and nature of the Presidential jets as assets of a Sovereign entity whose assets are protected by diplomatic immunity forbid any foreign Court from issuing an order against them,” Onanuga stated.
