Nigeria — Nigeria’s president headed to France on Monday dogged by a row over jet planes impounded by a French court in a dispute pitting Abuja against a Chinese company.
An airport source told AFP that Bola Ahmed Tinubu was flying on the presidential Airbus A330 — which until a few days ago was impounded by a court in France.
The plane was one of three seized on behalf of Chinese company Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment as part of a long-running trade and legal dispute between the firm and authorities in Nigeria.
But on Friday, Zhongshan said it had released the jet as a goodwill gesture.
Online flight tracker Flight Radar 24 showed an Airbus A330 operated by the Nigerian Air Force left the capital Abuja shortly after 4:00 pm (1500 GMT) for the southern French city Nice.
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President Tinubu was making a “brief work stay in France,” his spokesman Ajuri Ngelale said in a statement, without specifying which plane he was travelling on.
French President Emmanuel Macron is also in the south of France this week. The Elysee palace told AFP no meeting was planned between the two leaders.
The original row between Nigerian authorities and the Chinese company concerns a 2007 contract for Zhongshan to develop a free trade zone in southwestern Ogun state.
Nigerian officials said it was terminated because Zhongshan had not delivered on the agreement.
“When the contract with Ogun State was revoked in 2015, the company had only erected a perimeter fence on the land earmarked for a free trade zone,” presidential adviser Bayo Onanuga said.
In a strongly-worded statement last week, he accused the company of using “unorthodox means to strip our offshore assets.”
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Zhongshan secured two French court orders to seize Nigerian assets earlier this year following an award of more than $60 million at a London arbitration tribunal.
In a statement carried by Nigerian newspapers, Zhongshan said: “Far from being just a fence, the Ogun Free Trade Zone was featured as a significant international investment by the Economist Intelligence Unit,” a research group.
The company has said it hopes to reach a “reasonable compromise settlement rapidly”, according to Nigerian media.
Tinubu often visits France and made a private visit earlier this year.
The Nigerian presidency has not responded to AFP’s request for comment.
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Source: AFP
Picture: X/@officialABat
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