Court Grants Final Forfeiture Of $13m Linked To Achimugu’s Firm
A federal high court in Abuja has granted an order of final forfeiture of the sum of $13 million linked to Aisha Achimugu, a business woman, and her firm Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd.
In a ruling on Wednesday, Emeka Nwite, presiding judge, held that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was able to prove that the funds were proceeds of fraud.
The ruling followed a suit filed by the EFCC challenging the ownership of the funds, which it said were proceeds of unlawful activities.
In his judgment, Nwite held that Oceangate failed to provide sufficient evidence to establish the legitimate source of the money.
He rejected the company’s claim that the money comprised gifts received by Achimugu, noting that she did not appear before the court to justify the funds.
Nwite also observed that none of the alleged donors was presented to testify in support of the claim.
According to the court, Oceangate did not disclose any business transactions that could have generated the $13 million or provide evidence of payments from customers.
The judge added that the burden of proving lawful ownership of the funds was not discharged by the company.
The court had earlier, on August 22, 2025, granted an interim forfeiture order and directed the EFCC to publish the order for interested parties to show cause within 14 days why the funds should not be permanently forfeited.
In an affidavit supporting the forfeiture, Usman Aliyu, an EFCC investigator, said the commission acted on intelligence indicating that Oceangate used funds suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity to acquire oil blocks from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.
Aliyu said the $13 million was used to pay signature bonuses for PPL 302 and PPL 3007, adding that the funds were not derived from any legitimate business.
He further stated that part of the money originated from funds transferred by a state government to contractors for public projects, but were subsequently moved to Oceangate despite the absence of any contractual relationship.
The EFCC also challenged the credibility of Iliya Wakil, who deposed to an affidavit on behalf of the company, describing him as a nominal director without shareholding.
According to the commission, Wakil is an employee of Felak Concept Group Limited, another company linked to Achimugu, and does not receive any salary from Oceangate.
Aliyu said Wakil admitted in his statement that he acted on instructions from Achimugu and relayed them to another individual.
He described Oceangate as “a briefcase/shell company created as a vehicle for the purpose of holding petroleum related assets procured with funds reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity”.
“Hence, describing the company as ‘a professional oil and gas consortium, operating in diverse sectors of the oil and gas sectors of the Nigerian economy,’ is nothing but describing the devil as an angel of light,” Aliyu said.
But Oceangate had urged the court to reject the forfeiture request, insisting that the funds were partly from legitimate business earnings and partly gifts to Achimugu.
The EFCC, however, asked the court to dismiss the company’s claims — a prayer the court upheld in its final ruling.
Source: TheCable
