Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja, today, ordered the final forfeiture of the sum of $13 million linked to a businesswoman, Ms Aisha Achimugu and her Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Limited.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) dragged Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Limited, 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 the 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 customers.
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.
According to him, part of the funds used by Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Limited to pay for the Signature bonuses in respect of PPL 302 & 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.
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.
But EFCC, in its reply to the affidavit by Oceangate, prayed the court to dismiss the application.
Aliyu, who also swore the affidavit on behalf of the commission, said the Commission found that Iliya Wakil, who swore to Oceangate’s affidavit, was a mere nominal director with no shareholding status of the company.
Besides, the investigator said Wakil was an employee of Felak Concept Group Limited, also owned by Achimugu, and incorporated on May 5, 2000.
He said Wakil admitted, in his extrajudicial statement to his team on 15 April 2025 that he had worked with Felak Concept from 2000 to date.
He said Wakil also admitted that he held so many positions, “among which are Manager Admin, General Manager Admin and Finance and presently Group General Manager Admin and Finance.’
He said Wakil also stated that he had consistently drawn his monthly salary from his known employer Felak Concept and WishWhich Koncept Limited.
He argued that there was no record of Wakil drawing a salary from Oceangate.
Besides, the officer said Wakil admitted in his extra-judicial statement that he got all his instructions from Ms Achimugu, the GCEO, and he, in turn, gave the same instructions to Mr Chiroma via telephone conversation.
Aliyu described Oceangate as “a briefcase/shell company created as a vehicle for the purpose of holding petroleum-related assets procured with funds reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity.”
“Hence, describing the company as ‘a professional oil and gas consortium, operating in diverse sectors of the oil and gas sectors of the Nigerian economy,’ is nothing but describing the devil as an angel of light,” Mr Aliyu wrote.
He alleged that the modus operandi of Oceangate is to acquire “petroleum-related assets with tainted funds.”
