A Nigerian jet worth $57 million has been reportedly seized by Chinese firm, Zhongshang Fucheng Industrial Investment Ltd in Canada.
Zhongshang recently received a change of custodian paperwork for the Bombardier 6000 type BD-700-1A10 aircraft from Canadian authorities in Montreal. The paperwork change was made after a Canadian court gave a verdict allowing the Chinese firm to seize the jet from Nigeria.
The Chinese firm may seize more of Nigeria’s properties in Belgium and US in the coming weeks. Nigeria has mounted challenges against the court orders but it has not been successful in five countries.
After seizing two Nigerian guest houses in the UK, the Chinese firm put the residential structures in the UK it confiscated for sale on global online marketplace eBay for an estimated $2.2 million.
The Chinese firm last Wednesday announced that it has seized three presidential jets of Nigeria but later released one to be used to convey the Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu, for a trip to France this week. Despite saying it was open for negotiation with the Nigerian government, the firm has stepped up its efforts to seize Nigerian assets worldwide.
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The Chinese firm took possession of the Nigerian properties at number 15, Aigburth Hall Road, Liverpool and Beech Lodge, 49, Calderstones Road, Liverpool United Kingdom, in June, years after Nigeria failed to settle an arbitration judgement handed down in 2021.
Court documents indicate that Zhongshang was awarded $55,675,000 plus interest of $9,400,000 and costs of £2,864,445 as of the date of the arbitration verdict on March 26, 2021. The firm said Ogun State violated a 2001 trade treaty between Nigeria and China when its rights to a free trade zone were rescinded in 2016.
The company dragged Nigeria before the arbitration panel in the UK in 2018, alleging that Nigeria allowed its security operatives like the police, immigration and export processing authority to be deployed by Ogun State without due process. Court documents said two Zhongshang executives were expelled from Nigeria between mid and late 2016 after one of them was allegedly detained and tortured by the police.
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