U.S. appeals court authorises Chinese investors to proceed towards seizing Nigeria’s assets abroad

An appellate court in the United States has rejected Nigeria’s sovereign immunity and authorised a Chinese consortium to proceed with its efforts to confiscate Nigeria’s assets abroad, aggravating a crisis that President Bola Tinubu has been trying to manage in Europe and prevent from spilling to other jurisdictions.

The decision on August 9, 2024, came after judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Washington found that Nigeria had gruesomely violated both fundamental and commercial rights of executives at a Chinese firm that had entered into a trade zone agreement with Nigeria.

The Chinese workers of Zhongshan had approached the U.S. judicial system to retrieve an outstanding arbitration award for breach of contract after initially winning their case in the United Kingdom in 2021. The Chinese expatriates were awarded $55.6 million in compensation from Nigeria and $75,000 in moral damages, alongside interest and legal and arbitration fees, court filings said.

The proceeding stemmed from a breakdown of a contract between Zhongshan and Ogun State government, which had entered into a deal with the Chinese expatriates in 2007 to develop a free trade zone. After years of developing the project, court filings alleged, former Governor Ibikunle Amosun unilaterally terminated the contract and deployed crude tactics to avoid following the terms laid in the initial paperwork signed by all parties.

The Chinese also said they were arrested, detained and detained for weeks without charges, during which uncivilised Nigerian police officers tortured
them in custody.

The UK court said it was satisfied with the evidence submitted by the Chinese before awarding them nearly $60 million.