Court Grants Final Forfeiture Of $13m Linked To Aisha Achimugu’s Firm

A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the permanent forfeiture of $13 million linked to Aisha Achimugu and her company, Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd.

Delivering judgment on Wednesday, the presiding judge, Emeka Nwite, said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had proved that the money came from fraudulent activities.

The case was filled by the EFCC, which questioned how the funds were obtained and asked the court to seize them.

In his ruling, the judge said Oceangate did not provide convincing proof that the money was earned legally.

The company had claimed that the funds were partly gifts given to Achimugu, but the court dismissed this argument.

The judge noted that Achimugu did not appear in court to explain the source of the money, and none of the people said to have given the gifts came forward to testify.

The court also pointed out that the company failed to show any business dealings or customer payments that could explain how the $13 million was generated.

As a result, the judge ruled that the company did not meet the requirement of proving lawful ownership.

Earlier, on August 22, 2025, the court had issued a temporary forfeiture order and asked the EFCC to make it public so that anyone with a claim could respond within 14 days.

However, no convincing claim was made, leading to the final decision.

In its filings, the EFCC said it acted on intelligence suggesting that Oceangate used suspicious funds to acquire oil assets from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.

An investigator with the commission, Usman Aliyu, stated that the money was used to pay signature bonuses for oil blocks PPL 302 and PPL 3007.

He added that the funds were not linked to any legitimate business and that part of the money came from payments made by a state government to contractors for public projects, which were later moved to Oceangate despite no formal contract.

The EFCC also questioned the role of Iliya Wakil, who spoke on behalf of the company, describing him as a director in name only with no ownership stake.

According to the agency, Wakil works for another company connected to Achimugu and does not receive a salary from Oceangate.

Aliyu further said Wakil admitted he was acting on Achimugu’s instructions.

He described Oceangate as a shell company used to hold oil assets bought with funds suspected to be illegal.

However, the company had asked the court to reject the forfeiture, insisting the money came from lawful business activities and gifts.

The court disagreed and upheld the EFCC’s request, ordering that the funds be permanently seized.

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