On Friday, Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced that efforts are underway to retrieve the remaining presidential jets seized by the French court at the request of Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, a Chinese company.
Tuggar made this statement while addressing State House journalists amid growing concerns over the circumstances surrounding the seizure of the jets.
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This development follows reports that Zhongshan has released one of the seized jets to enable President Bola Tinubu to use it for his upcoming trip next week.
Zhongshan had obtained a court order on Wednesday to confiscate three Nigerian presidential jets until the federal government settles the $74.5 million awarded to the firm.
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Tuggar indicated that he is collaborating with Lateef Fagbemi, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, to resolve the issue promptly.
“ The Attorney General and I are working on it, both diplomatically and then from the legal perspective as well, to ensure that this issue is resolved.
“But you see again, this is part of the problem when sub national actors like state governments take it upon themselves to go into agreements, go into international arrangements, without recourse to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, without recourse to the federal government, and then when it goes awry, we are left with the with the problem to deal with. And that is why it’s always important that such arrangements should be registered with the mission there, with the embassy, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and with the federal government.
“This is something that Ogun state, under a different administration, not this governor, entered into that we’re not aware of. All we know is that you know they’re going after Nigerian assets.
“That’s why, really, foreign or international negotiations is not the purview of subnational actors. You should always have those that are experienced in such an area that have the necessary skills and the necessary training to negotiate these sort of agreements, negotiations” he said.
He assured that negotiations are ongoing, stating “We will come back to you and give you an update as and when due, soon”.
