By Kamsi Anayo
Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday granted an order of final forfeiture of $13 million linked to a business woman, Ms Aisha Achimugu and her Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd, to the federal government.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), dragged Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd before the court regarding the ownership of $13m suspected to be proceeds of fraud and unlawful activities.
Delivering judgment in a suit instituted by Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd to claim the funds, Justice Nwite held that the company failed woefully to establish how it came about the money.
He, however, 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 the Oceangate Engineering Company by Aisha Achimugu, adding 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 linked to Oceangate to the government.
He also directed 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
