Court has ordered the final forfeiture of $13m linked to Aisha Achimugu and Oceangate Engineering to the federal government.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the final forfeiture of $13 million linked to Lagos socialite, Aisha Achimugu, and her company, Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd, to the Federal Government.
Delivering judgment on Wednesday, Justice Nwite ruled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) successfully established that the funds were proceeds of fraudulent and unlawful activities.
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The ruling followed a suit filed by Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd seeking to reclaim the funds after an earlier interim forfeiture order was issued by the court.
Justice Nwite held that the company failed to convincingly explain the legitimate source of the $13 million, noting that the evidence presented by the EFCC clearly linked the funds to suspicious financial transactions.
The court rejected Oceangate’s claim that the money represented gifts received by the company through its Group Chief Executive Officer, Aisha Achimugu. The judge observed that Achimugu did not appear before the court to justify the claim or provide proof of the alleged donors.
He also noted that none of the individuals who supposedly made the gifts testified in court to substantiate the claim.
According to the judge, the burden of proof rested on the applicant to demonstrate lawful ownership of the funds, but Oceangate failed to do so.
Justice Nwite further stated that the company did not provide evidence of any business activities or contracts that could legitimately generate the $13 million.
The EFCC had earlier secured an interim forfeiture order on August 22, 2025, after presenting intelligence that Oceangate used funds suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities to acquire oil blocks from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
Investigations by the anti-graft agency revealed that the company participated in the 2024 oil block licensing bid and was declared the preferred bidder for Deep Offshore PPL 302 and Shallow Water PPL 3007.
EFCC investigator Usman Aliyu told the court that Oceangate was required to pay about $37.2 million in financial obligations before obtaining the petroleum prospecting licences.
According to the investigation, the company paid about $20 million between March 20 and April 3, 2025, towards signature bonuses for the oil blocks.
However, the EFCC alleged that part of the funds used for the payments, specifically $13 million was sourced through unlicensed bureau de change operators and cash collections outside formal banking channels.
The commission further claimed that some of the funds were linked to contractors handling projects for the Lagos State Government, despite the absence of any contractual relationship between those contractors and Oceangate.
In its defence, Oceangate maintained that the funds were legitimate and partly derived from business earnings, while the remaining portion came as personal gifts to Achimugu.
But the EFCC disputed the claim, describing the company as a shell entity allegedly used to acquire petroleum assets with funds suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.
After reviewing the evidence, Justice Nwite ruled that the anti-graft agency had met the legal threshold required for final forfeiture and ordered that the $13 million be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
The judge added that the applicant failed to provide credible evidence capable of overturning the EFCC’s investigation and allegations.
