Updated: Chinese investor seizes another Nigeria’s $57m jet in Canada

Updated: Chinese investor seizes another Nigeria’s $57m jet in Canada

Chinese investor, Zhongshang Fucheng Industrial Investment Ltd, is not done with embarrassing Nigerian government. It has taken over another asset of the government abroad to reclaim its judgement debt.

This time, it is a private jet valued at $57 million earlier confiscated from a former minister.

The jet, a Bombardier 6000 type BD-700-1A10, was previously seized from Dan Etete, a former petroleum minister, and had been in Canada since its seizure.

The company, which has doubled down its legal move to seize Nigeria’s assets, received the required paperwork to repossess the aircraft which was previously in the custodian of Canadian authorities in Montreal.

The seizure of the aircraft came after a Canadian court judgment granting Zhongshang request to take over the aircraft from Nigeria.

“The court granted orders for Zhongshang to seize the plane earlier this year, but the change of custody from Nigeria to Zhongshang was only recently concluded,” a reliable source said, adding, “Zhongshang will not stop seizing Nigeria’s assets worldwide until the last cent of the arbitration awards has been paid.”

Judge David Collier of the Superior Court of Quebec on March 21, 2024 dismissed Nigeria’s arguments to keep ownership of the aircraft, which records showed was purchased for $57 million by fugitive Dan Etete as part of his splurge shortly after netting over $350 million windfall from the lucrative but corrupt sale of OPL 245 oil field in 2010.

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Nigeria first seized the aircraft from Etete in 2016 and trapped it in Dubai. Flight tracking websites showed it was then flown suddenly to Canada on May 29, 2020, where Nigeria quickly obtained a court order for seizure and held it at the main airport in Montreal.

A Canadian firm, Tibit, sought to claim ownership, but Canadian courts allowed Nigeria to remain in charge of the aircraft.

In 2023, Zhongshang moved to seize the jet, which could accommodate up to 19 people, while pursuing enforcement of its arbitration awards of over $70 million against Nigeria.

Judge Collier said Nigeria failed to enter a dispute against the aircraft’s seizure by Zhongshang, declaring the country’s argument that it could not respond to the lawsuit for nine months over the February-March 2023 general elections as frivolous and unacceptable.

The judge also rejected Nigeria’s sovereign immunity claim along the lines already itemised by the arbitration panel and courts in the United Kingdom.

Zhongshang has now seized Nigeria’s assets in the UK, France and Canada, where the country’s guest houses, presidential jets and the Etete jet have been confiscated, respectively.

Although Nigeria has lost all its challenges against the Chinese investors in at least five countries, it has nonetheless maintained no wrongdoing in the lawsuits, which stemmed from a botched free trade zone contract in Ogun State.

Updated: Chinese investor seizes another Nigeria’s $57m jet in Canada