The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, granted an order of final forfeiture of $13 million linked to a businesswoman, Aisha Achimugu, and her Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Limited, to the federal government.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) dragged Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Limited before the court regarding the ownership of $13 million suspected to be proceeds of fraud and unlawful activities.
Delivering judgement in a suit instituted by Oceangate to claim the funds, Justice Emeka Nwite held that the company failed to establish how it came about the money.
Justice Nwite stressed that the EFCC succeeded in convincing the court that the funds are proceeds of fraud and should be forfeited to the government.
The judge dismissed the claims that the $13 million was gifts received into Oceangate by Achimugu, adding that there was no evidence to show cause why the funds should not be forfeited to the federal government.
Justice Nwite added that no person who gave the monetary gifts to Achimugu was called to testify.
Justice Nwite held that the burden to establish genuine ownership of the money was not established by the applicant to counter the claims of the EFCC that the money was a proceeds of fraud based on its investigation.
According to the judge, Oceangate did not show the business it undertook that fetched it the money and did not also show whether any payment was made to it by of its customer.
Justice Nwite had on August 22, 2025, granted the EFCC an interim order forfeiting the $13 million linked to Oceangate to the government.
He also directed the anti-graft agency to publish the order in a national daily for interested person(s) to show cause within 14 days why the funds should not be permanently forfeited to the government.
Justifying the forfeiture moves, the EFCC investigator, Usman Aliyu, swore to an affidavit stating that the commission acted on intelligence that showed that Oceangate, without following due process, used funds reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity to acquire oil blocks from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
Aliyu insisted that the $13 million used by Oceangate to pay for the Signature Bonuses in respect of PPL302 and PPL3007 were not proceeds of any lawful and legitimate business but rather represent funds reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity.
EFCC’s witness: I paid $3m into Aisha Achimugu’s company’s account
According to him, part of the funds used by Oceangate to pay for the Signature bonuses in respect of PPL 302 and PPL 3007 was derived from the huge sum of money transferred by a state government to the contractors for the execution of contracts for the benefit of the state.
The investigator alleged that there were never any contractual or business relationships between Oceangate and the contractors who transferred the aforementioned public funds to the account of the company (Oceangate Engineering).
He said the contractors, who transferred the aforementioned public funds to Oceangate, were neither investors, directors, nor shareholders in Oceangate.
Oceangate, in its affidavit, prayed the court not to make the order of final forfeiture of the funds, saying all the funds were derived partly from legitimate earnings of the company and partly gifts given to the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the company, Achimugu.
But EFCC, in its reply to the affidavit by Oceangate, prayed the court to dismiss the application.
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