The Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the final forfeiture of $13 million that was connected to Ms. Aisha Achimugu, a socialite from Lagos, and her company, Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Limited, on Wednesday.
Justice Emeka Nwite’s ruling said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had successfully proved that the money came from fraud and other illegal activities, according to Vanguard.
It said that Achimugu and her company could not show how the fund was legally obtained.
The court threw out the notion that the $13 million was a collection of presents that Ms. Achimugu gave to Oceangate Engineering Company Ltd.
Justice Nwite said that even though the company went to court to claim the money, Achimugu, who the company said got the money, did not show up in court to explain why the money should not be given to the federal government.
The court also made it clear that none of the people who were said to have given Achimugu the money were invited to testify in order to prove the claim.
It said that the company didn’t meet the legal requirement to prove that it really owned the money, which was necessary to fight the EFCC’s assertion that its investigations indicated the $13 million was the result of fraud.
The court said that the company didn’t show how it gained money from its commercial activities or how any client paid.
Because of this, the court said that the FG should get the fund.
Justice Nwite had given an interim order on August 22, 2025, for the temporary loss of the funds. He also told the EFCC to publish a notice inviting anyone who was interested in the money to explain why it should not be taken by the federal government as money made from fraud.
After the temporary order, Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd filed a request in which it claimed that the money really belonged to it because it was a gift from its main person, Achimugu.
An investigator for the EFCC named Usman Aliyu said in an affidavit that the agency had received reliable information that the company had bought oil blocs from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) with money that was probably the result of illegal activities and without going through the proper legal channels.
The business, which was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on February 25, 2005, with the number RC 617736, also took part in an oil bloc license auction for deep offshore PPL302 and shallow sea PPL 3007 in 2024, according to what the court said.
The anti-corruption agency said that once the technical and commercial bids were finished, NUPRC told the company that it had won and what it needed to do before it could get a license.
The EFCC alleged that before Oceangate Ltd. got the Petroleum Prospecting License (PPL), it owed the government a total of $37.2 million ($37,223,144).
It further said that the corporation sent millions of dollars to the FG in different amounts, including $1.1 million, $1.1 million, $3.8 million, $1.2 million, $3.05 million, $2.1 million, and $500,000 using its Zenith Bank account number 5074678281.
The EFCC told the court that Providus Bank Limited sent the FG a total of $7 million on March 27 and 28, 2025, on behalf of Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Limited.
Aliyu added that his team got proof of the transactions that went through Providus Bank Limited from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in a letter dated June 24, 02025.
He added that between March 20, 2025, and April 3, 2025, the business paid the FG a total of $20 million to buy the PPL 302 and PPL 3007.
He also said that to meet the requirements for paying the signature bonuses for PPL 302 and PPL 3007, the company worked with some unlicensed Bureau de Change operators and bank officials to keep and move $13 million in funds, which they thought were probably the result of illegal activity.
Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Limited hired and helped Suleiman Muhammed Chiroma collect $13,000,000.00 in cash from his friends in both Abuja and Lagos, without going through a bank.
“The deponent also said that while working with Oceangate Limited, Muhammed Chiroma hired Dantani Abubakar Hassan of Ashrab Energy and Oil Services Limited and Tirmizi Muhammed Usman of Tripple A & Tee Oil Nigeria Limited to collect the $9 million in cash without going through a bank. The money was only for paying the signature bonuses for the two oil blocks given to Oceangate Oil and Gas Limited.”
The court also heard that the company hired people named Chiroma, Tirmizi Usman, and Dantani Hassan to get money from different contractors working for the Lagos State Government that were likely the result of illegal acts.
The EFCC said that Dantani Abubakar utilized his company, Ashrab Energy and Oil Services Limited, with account number 1229255048 at Zenith Bank Plc to get and keep money that was likely the result of illegal activity from multiple contractors working for Lagos State.
The investigator said, “While still working with Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Limited and Suleiman Chiroma, Dantani Abubakar used his company, Ashrab Energy and Oil Services Limited, with account number 1907084038 in Access Bank Plc to receive and keep the total sum of N855, 057, 560.00 from different contractors doing work for the Lagos State Government. This sum is reasonably suspected to be the proceeds of illegal activity.”
He said that the total amount of N2, 455, 651, 560.00 that Ashrab Energy received in both its Zenith and Access Bank accounts was changed into US dollars and then sent to Oceangate’s Zenith Bank account to be used to pay for the signature bonuses for the two oil blocks, PPL 302 and PPL 3007, that the company was given, among other things.
Aliyu said that the $13 million the corporation utilized to pay for the Signature Bonuses for PPL302 and PPL3007 did not come from any legal or legitimate business. Instead, they were funds that were likely the result of illegal conduct.
However, in its own affidavit, which was signed by one of its directors, Iliya Wakil, the company asked the court not to issue an order for the final forfeiture of the funds, which it said were partly from the company’s legitimate earnings and partly from gifts given to the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Company, Achimugu.
It refuted the EFCC’s claims, saying that it did not work with unlicensed BDC operators or bank personnel to keep or move illegal money.
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