President Bola Tinubu will today, August 19, depart Abuja, for France.

His Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, disclosed this in a press statement, noting that the President will return to Nigeria after his brief work stay.

The President’s trip to France is coming at a time when a French court ordered the seizure of three Nigerian presidential jets following a dispute between a Chinese company Zhongshan and the Ogun State Government.

Recall that last Friday, Zhongshan released one of the three Nigerian aircraft, an Airbus A330, as a gesture of goodwill.

Meanwhile, the Presidency is aware of failed attempts by Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd., a Chinese company, to take over offshore assets of Nigeria through subterfuge.

Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, who disclosed this in a statement, said Zhongshan misled the Judicial Court in Paris into attaching Nigeria’s presidential jets in its judgment against Ogun government which were on routine maintenance in France.

According to him, the presidential jets are assets of a Sovereign entity protected by diplomatic immunity, which forbids any foreign court from issuing an order against them, alleging that foreign companies were trying to defraud Nigeria with the collaboration of some bureaucrats.

Onanuga added that the Federal Government was not under any contractual obligation with the Chinese company, and the company had no solid ground to demand restitution from Ogun government based on the facts regarding the 2007 contract between them to manage a free-trade zone, and as at when the contract was revoked in 2015, the company had only erected a perimeter fence on the land earmarked for a free trade zone.

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