FG to secure release of remaining Presidential jets soon – Tuggar

…Says Foreign Affairs Ministry was not part of contract negotiations

Yusuf Tuggar, the minister of foreign affairs, on Friday, said efforts are on to retrieve the remaining presidential jets seized by the French Court on the requests of Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, a Chinese firm.

Tuggar stated this on Friday, while speaking with State House journalists, amidst growing concerns over the circumstances that led to the seizure of the presidential jets by the Chinese firm.

This came on the heels of reports that the firm has released one of the seized jets, to allow President Bola Tinubu use the aircraft during his trip next week.

Recall that Zhongshan, had on Wednesday, secured a court order to confiscate three Nigerian presidential jets, until the federal government is ready to pay $74.5 million awarded to it against Nigeria.

This is as Goddy Ehimikhuai an Adamawa based legal practitioner, speaking in a telephone chat with BusinessDay, expressed dissatisfaction with the explanations given by the federal government that the seizure got to them without notice.

Ehimikhuai insisted that there was no way the French Court could have proceeded with such a sensitive case without contacting the Nigerian government.

“It is surprising that Nigeria has found itself in this very tight corner, just few months after the P&ID case that almost cost Nigeria the sum of $11b, due to negligence,” he said.

“As a lawyer, I can tell you that there was no way a French court will proceed with such a case without putting the federal government of Nigeria on notice through the Nigerian Embassy in Paris, France. I suspect that, just like every other thing we do, someone may have dismissed the case with a wave of hands.

“ No court will be happy if you disregard it or treat any case brought before it carelessly”

He therefore called on the government to probe the circumstances that led to the court judgement and take immediate action to appeal against the judgement.

But Tuggar, while speaking on the seizure, said he is working with Lateef Fagbemi, the Attorney General of the federation and Minister of Justice to resolve the issue, as soon as possible.

“ 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 the negotiation efforts are in progress, adding that “We will come back to you and give you an update as and when due, soon”.

Tuggar who also spoke on the recent gas pipeline Memorandum of Understanding between Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, said the two countries have a lot of opportunities that have been identified but not actualized.

He however noted that President Tinubu, visiting there, ensured that the agreement was sealed

According to him, “ Nigerian gas will be delivered to Equatorial Guinea. Equatorial Guinea has a liquefied natural gas plant. It’s running out of gas, so it’s in need of Nigerian gas to keep the LNG plant going.

He noted that Nigeria has untapped gas resources, off the coast of Calabar, in Cross Rivers State and in Akwa Ibom state.

“So it’s only a matter of constructing 150 kilometer or so pipeline to the LNG plant here. So this is really a remarkable achievement. But that’s not all. Of course, you can see that this is a very fertile land. Plantains and bananas grow in the wild.

He also revealed that the two countries have much trade that could be going on that is not, adding that “ the two presidents have agreed to increase the trade that is going on, and also the trade that the two countries can harness together for exports to other countries.

Read also: Inside deal that led to $100m presidential jet seizure

“So we also have a joint national commission that has been inactive. President Tinubu has resuscited that, along with his counterpart, and we are going to have the first meeting in November.

“Also within that framework, there is the issue of cooperation in terms of safety and security of the Gulf of Guinea. These are the two countries that are essentially gatekeepers of the Gulf of Guinea, and that security collaboration, if you remember, in 2002 there was a vessel that was involved in illicit oil activities in Nigeria, stolen crude, and it ran here. And the authorities in EquatorialGuinea arrested that vessel and handed over the crude to Nigeria.

“So that has set a precedence. It’s in part one of the reasons why, since 2022 Nigeria has not had recorded any piracy incident within our territorial waters, because the pirates know that if they do anything and they run to a place like equatorial Guinea, it’s going to be they’re going to be sent back to Nigeria for trial.

“So it signaled the same thing for other countries. So this is a sort of collaboration we need in the Gulf of Guinea, and the agreements that are being prepared to be signed during the Joint National Commission. So there are different facets and different aspects of the achievement of this visit.”