Segun Sowunmi, a former aide to one time Vice President Atiku Abubakar and a governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last general elections has urged the Federal Government to immediately set up a special investigative panel to probe the ongoing dispute concerning Ogun-Gaungdong Free Trade Zone (OGFTZ) and a Chinese company, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited which has led to seizure of Nigerian assets across the globe, causing the country international embarrassment.
The PDP chieftain, in a telephone chat with pressmen today, said Nigeria need to take the responsible step of setting up this panel to unravel the circumstances under which Ogun State and Nigeria has gotten into this opprobrious situation.
Fuming, the Ogun State front line politician pointed out that: “yes contracts can become breached, but that should not deserve a hostile take over of national assets across the globe, especially in a manner that we are now having to deal with cases in many jurisdictions, bringing up a lot of costs in litigations and at the end of the day, we are now in an embarrassing situation, especially, in a financially exposing manner”.
He said the investigative panel should find out if there had been abuse of office by parties given responsibilities to govern the state.
He also called for proper and appropriate laws to checkmate the country’s leaders in such a way that they do not put the state or country in a precarious situation and go away scot free as if nothing had happened.
“There has to be significant consequence to prevent such occurrence in the future”, he insisted.
Sowunmi noted that this trade dispute has created a reason for the country to be wary of its partners, especially the Asian ones, the Chinese particularly who seem to be very savage around the country.
He said the country now needs to have a firm protocol on how to handle this kind of situations in the future as the world has become such that nobody can afford to sit like an island on its own, it therefore means that we are going to be having invitations to businesses from other parts of the world and the country would have to extend same to others.
He said the Federal Government must ensure that the cost incurred on this matter is borne by Ogun State as the state must own this liability or else, it could send a wrong signal to future investors in the state that Ogun State is not a good partner in any deal.
Sowunmi however refused to apportion blame to any party in this imbroglio yet, as he said he would not do so before investigation, noting that: “sometimes, we can find ourselves in a situation where international organizations would come into our country under the guise of doing business but will want to do something inimical to our national interests, culture and ways of life of our people. Since we are a sovereign country, we have the right to say no, this is the way we play here and not the way you play in your country and so terminate the contract”.
Meanwhile, the Chinese firm Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited had earlier secured a court order to ground three of the federal government’s presidential jets.
It was also reported that the Chinese firm has commenced a legal move in at least eight global jurisdictions over the dispute between it and the Ogun state government.
Some of the countries Zhongshan has initiated legal actions to seize federal government assets are the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Belgium, Singapore, France, and the British Virgin Islands.
