Justice I.E. Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has ordered embattled businesswoman Aisha Achimugu to appear before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, amid serious allegations of fraud, money laundering, and corruption.
The court issued the order on Monday, April 28, 2025, while ruling in Achimugu’s fundamental rights suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/626/2025, filed against the Nigeria Police, ICPC, DSS, EFCC, NSCDC, and NIS. She has also been commanded to appear before the court on Wednesday, April 30, 2025.
Countering her claims of harassment, the EFCC, through senior counsel Ekele Iheanacho, SAN, and investigator Chris Odofin, laid bare explosive findings: Achimugu is being investigated over suspicious inflows of N8.71 billion into corporate accounts under her control.
The funds, allegedly masked as “investment” for oil block acquisitions, were traced to shady cash transactions through bureau de change operators with no credible business origins.
Achimugu, who initially responded to EFCC’s summons in February 2024, secured bail but subsequently defaulted, electing instead to file a lawsuit aimed at shielding herself from accountability.
Her narrative of legitimacy — including references to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission — was shredded by evidence showing that her firm, Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Limited, secured two oil blocks (PPL 3007 and PPL 302-DO) valued at $25.3 million through tainted processes.
EFCC’s probe further exposed a massive financial footprint: Achimugu operates 136 bank accounts across ten banks, raising red flags over her financial operations.
Despite the scale of the acquisitions, no exploration or production activities have commenced on either oil block, deepening suspicions of financial crimes and abuse of process.
The anti-graft agency denounced Achimugu’s legal maneuvers as a calculated strategy to derail the investigation, pointing to a previous court ruling (FHC/ABJ/CS/451/2024) that had already rejected her claims of rights violations.
In a sweeping move, EFCC expanded its probe to include inquiries to commercial banks, the Corporate Affairs Commission, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering, the CBN, and land registries — with fresh evidence still streaming in.
Achimugu is under strict orders to appear before the EFCC on Tuesday and before the court the next day as the investigation intensifies.
