By Desire Emmanuel
Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, March 25, granted an order of final forfeiture of the sum of $13 million linked to a business woman, Aisha Achimugu and her Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd, to the Federal Government.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) dragged her and Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Limited before the court regarding the ownership of the$13 million suspected to be proceeds of fraud and unlawful activities.
Aisha Achimugu is linked with the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and was described as an ally of the governor involved in some high-profile controversies, including allegations of money laundering and criminal conspiracy.
Delivering judgment in a suit instituted by Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Ltd to claim the funds, Justice Nwite held that the company failed to establish how it came about the money, adding that the anti graft agency 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 the Oceangate Engineering Company by Aisha Achimugu, as he added that the said Aisha never showed up in court to show cause why the funds should not be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Additionally, Justice Nwite said that no single person who gave the monetary gifts to Achimugu to the tune of $13 million was called to testify.
The judge 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 Engineering Company 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 22 August 2025, granted the EFCC an interim order forfeiting the $13 million to the government while also directing the commission 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, EFCC investigator, Usman Aliyu, swore to an affidavit stating that the commission acted on intelligence that showed that Oceangate Engineering Limited, 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.
According to him, part of the funds used by Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Limited to pay for the Signature bonuses was derived from the huge sum of money transferred from the coffers of the Lagos 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.
But Oceangate, in its affidavit prayed the court not to make the order of final forfeiture of the funds because 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, Aisha Achimugu.
