Court orders final forfeiture of $13m linked to Aisha Achimugu’s company

The Federal High Court (FHC) in Abuja, on Wednesday, made an order for final forfeiture of the sum of 13 million dollars linked to Aisha Achimugu’s Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd.

Justice Emeka Nwite, in a ruling on the motion for final forfeiture of the funds filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), held that neither the company nor Achimugu had been able to show to the court that the money was legitimately gotten.

Justice Nwite held that the argument by Oceangate’s lawyer, Darlington Ozurumba, that the $13 million dollars came from gifts to Achimugu and earnings from gas and oil-related contact could not be substantiated by material facts.

The judge also dismissed Ozurumba’s argument that the court lacked jurisdiction to have granted the Aug. 22, 2025 interim forfeiture while the court sat as vacation court.

The judge agreed with the submission of the EFCC’s lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, that relevant laws, including Order 46(5) of the FHC, Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act, 2006, and others, were complied with in granting the order.

Justice Nwite also described the arguement that the anti-graft agency was a meddlesome interloper since no person or corporate body had approached it to complain that their money was missing as “baseless.”(NAN)