By Abiola Olawale
A Chinese firm, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd, has expressed its readiness to resolve the business dispute between it and Ogun State and the Federal government of Nigeria, respectively.
Zhongshan, in a press statement made available to the press, said it doesn’t want to engage in any back and forth with Ogun State.
The Chinese company said it only sought to assert its rights under international law and is confident of the justness of its case.
The statement reads in part: “The independent arbitral panel was found unanimously in its favour, and courts in multiple countries have upheld the view that the panel’s compensation should be enforced. The French court was fully aware of the facts when it reached its decision.
“Far from being just a fence, the Ogun Free Trade Zone was featured as a significant international investment by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
“Zhongshan has for a long time been ready to enter serious negotiations with the federal government of Nigeria to settle this case and still awaits an indication that the government is equally willing.”
The New Diplomat reports that this comes after a Paris court recently ordered the seizure of assets owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria, including three aircraft, over a contract dispute.
The court ruled that the Chinese firm should use Nigeria’s jets at the Paris-Le Bourget and Basel-Mulhouse international airports “as security for its claim of EUR 74,459,221”
It would be recalled that the issue began in 2010, when Zhongshan, through Zhuhai Zhongfu Industrial Group Co. Ltd. (Zhuhai), its Chinese parent company, acquired rights to develop a free trade zone in Ogun state.
A year later, Zhongshan set up Zhongfu International Investment (NIG) FZE (Zhongfu), a Nigerian entity, to manage the project with the permission of the Ogun state government.
However, things took a different turn in July 2016 when the investor accused the state government of abruptly moving to terminate its appointment while attempting to install a new manager for the free trade zone.
Subsequently, Zhongfu initiated an investment treaty arbitration against Nigeria under the bilateral investment treaty between the People’s Republic of China and Nigeria (the China-Nigeria BIT).
The arbitrators had ruled that Nigeria was in breach of its obligations under the China-Nigeria BIT and awarded Zhongshan a compensation of around $70 million.
In January 2022, the Chinese company initiated a case to seek enforcement of the arbitration award.
Nigeria pleaded state immunity but was turned away by Sara Cockerill, a high court judge in the UK, who said the country abused the time frame for appealing arbitral awards.
