According to information, a Chinese investment group trying to recover around $70 million in arbitration awards from Nigeria has finalized plans to put up two residential structures it confiscated from the country for sale on eBay, a global online marketplace.
Zhongshang Fucheng Industrial Investment Ltd took over two buildings connected to the Nigerian government in Liverpool, United Kingdom, in June 2024, many years after Nigeria failed to honour an arbitration judgement handed down in 2021.
The properties, located at 15, Aigburth Road, Liverpool and Beech Lodge, 49, Calderstones Road, Liverpool, were targeted after a December 2021 British court order empowered Zhongshang executives to seize Nigerian assets in the UK to recover the $70 million payment, which was still outstanding as of August 20, 2024, with two percent monthly interest accruals.
According to court documents, Zhongshang was awarded $55,675,000, interest of $9,400,000 and costs of £2,864,445 as of the date of the arbitration verdict on March 26, 2021.
The case emanated from a dispute between Ogun State and Zhongshang. The firm stated that the state violated a 2001 trade treaty between Nigeria and China when its rights to a free trade zone were abrogated in 2016.
The company took Nigeria to the arbitration panel in the UK in 2018, alleging that Nigeria permitted its federal organs like the police, immigration and export processing authority to be deployed by Ogun State without following due process. Court documents said between mid and late 2016, two Zhongshang executives were expelled from Nigeria after one of them had allegedly been detained and tortured by the police.
Once again, the case has thrown Nigeria into confusion months after the country escaped a similar arbitration decision that awarded over $11 billion to a consortium known as P&ID. The arbitration verdict was thrown out after it was discovered later that P&ID owners were involved in bribery and corruption.
Meanwhile, the Zhongshang case appeared different, with many European courts already granted enforcement orders in the UK, France, Belgium and other countries, where Nigerian-owned jets and other assets are being tracked down. An appellate panel recently refused to grant Nigeria sovereign immunity protection over the recovery efforts of Zhongshang in the United States.
A source who works with Zhongshang said the company has been working to sell the two Liverpool houses, including on eBay, where the source said up to $2.2 million would be the asking price of both houses.
The source said: “They said the value of both properties should be around $2.2 million, so they already put together a plan to sell them to willing buyers. Some websites like eBay might bring buyers faster than other methods.”
Though Nigeria owned the properties, they were seized owing to the fact that they weren’t listed as Nigerian diplomatic or consular assets. It was gathered that those currently occupying the properties had no ties to the Nigerian mission in the UK. It remains unclear when Nigeria bought the assets, but a senior judge disclosed that its officials had regularly rented out both places to guests.
In her June 14, 2024, ruling authorizing Zhongshang to seize the buildings from Nigeria, Master Lisa Sullivan of the UK High Court, King’s Bench Division, said: “The properties are currently used for the purpose of leases to residential tenants unconnected with Nigeria and its mission. Those are commercial purposes for the purpose of s13(4) of the SIA and therefore the enforcement against the properties is not barred by state immunity.”
The source stated the sale would not be done secretly because the Nigerian people should know how much all recovered assets were being sold until the full amount had been recovered.
The source added: “Zhongshang promised to be transparent with the sale because of the keen public interest of Nigerians in the matter.”
