Former Justice Minister and Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aôndoakaa, SAN has criticized the seizure of the presidential jet by the Chinese firm stressing that under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, they have no right to carry out such action.
Recall that on August 15, Parallel Facts reported that a Chinese firm, Zhongshan secured a court order to seize three Nigerian presidential aircraft in a dispute stemming from the termination of its export processing zone management contract by the Ogun State government in 2016.
The seized aircraft, part of Nigeria’s presidential fleet, include a Dassault Falcon 7X at Le Bourget airport in Paris, a Boeing 737, and an undelivered Airbus 330 at Basel-Mulhouse airport in Switzerland, which was purchased by Nigeria but not yet delivered.
Reacting to this development, Aondoakaa in an interview on Arise TV condemned such act stating that the plane is not for commercial purposes.
He further questioned the reaction of Nigerian lawyers when the incident took place.
In his words,” The Chinese people have to release our plane because in the doctrine of sovereign immunity, they have no right to seize presidential planes because they are not used for commercial purposes.
“If a state goes into investment, even in Nigeria law like the federal housing trying to say that they are the only Federal High Court that can regulate the way they have a contractual relationship with somebody.
“The Supreme Court say No! You’re no longer acting for declarative action but the state now has provided a vehicle to do business so the transaction will go to our ordering High Court of the state which has unlimited initiative to deal with contract matters.
“So here if the state works, for instance in England where the seat of arbitration was conducted. The place where the arbitration is taking place, they specifically excluded where the state goes into transaction, commercial transaction.
“The state cannot claim sovereign immunity. It’s there.So it’s commercial transaction, our planes are not used for commercial transaction and then let’s find out, arbitration recognition is not done in absentia, you must go to that country, and you must file notices for recognition, application for recognition and enforcement.
“So what happened to Nigerian lawyers when they were served these processes for enforcement? What did they do to protect the planes it’s clear that sovereign immunity guarantees Nigerian presidential planes because they are not used for commercial. So what did our lawyers do before they were seized because they must have been served the processes?
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