Former Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, has confessed that he mistakenly transferred control of the Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone to dubious Chinese investors during his tenure.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Amosun revealed that he was deceived by a group claiming to be concerned about the management of the trade zone, leading to his decision to appoint Zhongfu International Investment Ltd as interim managers of the facility in 2012.
The free trade zone was conceived in 2007 between Ogun State under Governor Gbenga Daniel and Guangdong Xinguang International China Africa Investment Ltd (or China Africa) to facility seamless trade between Nigeria and China in Igbesa, Ogun State. China Africa, the major investor at 60 per cent of the stake, was developing the 10,000 hectares facility when, in 2012, a year after Mr Amosun assumed office, another firm that identified itself as Zhongfu International Investment Ltd came in with tales about how the place was being poorly administered and thereafter sought to manage it.
However, shortly after Amosun took office in 2011, Zhongfu approached his administration with allegations of mismanagement against China Africa. Based on these unverified claims, Amosun allowed Zhongfu to take over the management of the trade zone temporarily, pending further investigation.
Amosun stated, “Zhongfu International Investment FXE, pretending to be a concerned and genuine tenant and Zone stakeholder, volunteered very damaging and destructive information about the official representatives of Guangdong Province, the Joint Venturer and lawful Zone Managers, China Africa Investment FXE and subsequently requested to be appointed as Interim Zone Managers.
“Based on the information at the government’s disposal at the time, Zhongfu International Investment FXE was appointed interim zone manager on March 15, 2012, pending further evaluation. The whole idea was to ensure that someone was in charge and thereby prevent unwholesome and untoward development in the zone pending the completion of our fact-finding exercise.
“It was later discovered that the information and claims volunteered by Zhongfu International Investment FXE against China Africa Investment FXE were tissues of lies.
“Unknown to Ogun government at the time, Zhongfu International Investment FXE merely sought to de-market China Africa Investment FXE and to surreptitiously covert the state-owned assets of Guangdong Province in China together with the zone ownership and management rights of their business rival.”
The former governor said Chinese authorities later directly intervened through several notes from the country’s mission in Nigeria.
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“It was further discovered – much later – through the intervention of the Chinese Government via Diplomatic Note 1601, dated March 11, 2016,” Amosun said, saying the Chinese government told him the company he had terminated was the rightful owner of the investment.
Amosun said that after he ousted Zhongfu International Investment, the company approached Nigerian courts in different jurisdictions to ventilate its legal and business rights but lost all four cases filed. He didn’t list out the cases.
Consequently, the former governor urged the federal government and Ogun State to continue desisting from entering into any resolutions that would benefit Zhongfu.
“Nigeria should not give Zhongfu International Investment FXE any listening ear as doing so would amount to indulging and, encouraging an unlawful entity without locus standi to appropriate our common patrimon,” Mr Amosun said. “This matter of Zhongfu International Investment FXE should be treated the way Nigeria treated the P&ID case. There is no basis for negotiation.”
Following their removal, Zhongfu pursued legal action in Nigerian courts but lost all four cases. Despite these losses, Zhongfu’s parent company, Zhongshan, obtained a $60 million compensation judgment in the United Kingdom in 2021 and has since been attempting to seize Nigerian assets in France, the U.S., and other countries.
Amosun has called on the federal government and Ogun State to reject any settlement with Zhongfu, warning that doing so would reward an unlawful entity. He urged the government to handle the case as it did with the P&ID case, emphasizing that there is no basis for negotiation with Zhongfu.
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