The recovery marked the end of litigation with the British company, BTP Fitzpatrick GE Ltd.
Equatorial Guinea has recovered the Boeing 777 Carrier belonging to the national airlines company CEIBA, seized by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in a case pitting the State against the British company BTP Fitzpatrick GE Ltd.
The State finally paid the reduced sum of 18 million Euros (about FCFA 11.8 billion) demanded by the international judicial institution in the case brought before it by the British company on September 6, 2006 before it was given back the plane. Problems between the government of Equatorial Guinea and BTP Fitzpatrick GE Ltd (FEG) started in 2004 when the company won the contract to build an express road from the airport in the capital Malabo to the Ela Nguema neighbourhood.
The company decried the non-payment for the work that prevented it from paying the salaries of workers. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea on his part, denounced the company as being “pirate”. In 2005, Obiang Nguema said the company was presented as a group, the State trusted it but BTP Fitzpatrick GE Ltd (FEG) extorted 55 million Dollars (about FCFA 28.6 billion) from the State.
In the absence of a negotiated solution to the crisis, the British company on September 6, 2006 took the matter to the International Chamber of Commerce for arbitration. Equatorial Guinea was sentenced to pay 12.2 million Euros (about FCFA 8 billion) to the company and also 865,000 Dollars (about FCFA 450 million) to ICC as arbitration fee.
The Malabo government was sluggish in paying the money. Alan Fitzpatrick, founder of BTP Fitzpatrick GE Ltd (FEG) once more seized ICC. It immediately reacted by seizing Boeing 777 plane. The Malabo government hired Barrister Jean-Charles Tchikaya whose mediation efforts led to the reduction on the money the country had to pay and the release of the plane.
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