Claim: French Court Orders Immediate Release Of Nigerian Presidential Aircraft. Verdict: False On August 16th, 2024, a social media user on X (formerly Twitter), with the username Pst Okezie@Onsogbu posted on his wall that a French court has given an order for the immediate release of the Nigerian presidential aircraft. In
Claim: French Court Orders Immediate Release Of Nigerian Presidential Aircraft.
Verdict: False
On August 16th, 2024, a social media user on X (formerly Twitter), with the username Pst Okezie@Onsogbu posted on his wall that a French court has given an order for the immediate release of the Nigerian presidential aircraft.
In the post, the X user further praised President Bola Tinubu for this development, the post reads “ BREAKING!*French Court Orders Immediate Release Of Nigerian Presidential Aircraft. Thank you, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu”.
The Claim from an X user
The claim has gathered 81000 views and 180 reposts on the account.
Background
This is against the backdrop of a contractual dispute between the Nigerian government and Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment, a Chinese company, as well as the southwest state of Ogun, Nigeria, over the creation of a free-trade zone where a sizable industrial park was intended to be built to draw in investors.
However, the state terminated the agreement in 2016, and the Chinese firm claimed that it was forced out of the deal to bring in another manager for the project. According to the Financial Times, Zhongshan said it was forced out of the deal through a “campaign of illegal acts.”
As a result, the Chinese firm initiated an investment treaty arbitration against Nigeria under the bilateral investment law between Nigeria and the People’s Republic of China. The treaty arbitrator determined that Nigeria had breached bilateral law and awarded Zhongshan approximately $70 million in compensation.
Subsequently, the Chinese company decided to enforce the arbitration, but Nigeria pleaded immunity, which was denied by Sara Cockerill, a high court judge in the United Kingdom.
Amid the long-standing row between the duo, according to the BBC, a French court gave the order to seize three presidential aircraft owned by the Nigerian government.
However, according to media reports, the Chinese company has released one of the three presidential aircraft seized by the Nigerian government, allowing the president to travel to France on Monday.
To know if the released presidential aircraft was released through a court order according to the claim, NDR subjected the claim to verification.
Verification
To verify the claim, NDR conducted a thorough keyword search on the status of the impounded and released presidential aircraft. The search also looked for evidence that the released aircraft was from the court order and we discovered that there was no news from any credible media platform that a French court ordered the release of one of the presidential aircraft.
However, we found a media report by Premium Times quoting a statement by the Chinese company on why they released the presidential aircraft to Nigeria. The statement reads that they decided to “act reasonably and fairly in the course of a legal dispute with Nigeria which was not of its making”.
“It (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 lifted the seizure of that aircraft immediately. This will allow it to be used for the president’s trip.
Meanwhile, this statement was not rebutted or countered by the officials of the Nigerian government.
A further check also showed that Yusuf Tuggar, the minister of foreign affairs, says the federal government is working to resolve its dispute with Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment, a Chinese firm. He also added that Lateef Fagbemi, the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice, and himself are trying to resolve the matter.
Despite that, no evidence indicates that Nigeria approached a court to get a judgement for the release of the aircraft other than the statement by the Chinese company which emphasised the release as a ‘gesture of goodwill’.
Conclusion
Having consulted multiple sources, NDR concluded that as of the time of this report, there is no evidence to support the claim that a court ordered the release of the presidential aircraft. The claim that the French court orders the Immediate Release Of Nigerian Presidential Aircraft is False
