Aisha Achimugu, a businesswoman and founder of Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd, has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of “oppression, character assassination, intimidation and the deliberate dissipation of my lawfully acquired personal property”.
In a press statement issued on Wednesday, Achimugu said her
reputation has been “unfairly questioned” and investments hit with setbacks
owing to “misleading information” from the anti-graft agency.
The businesswoman alleged that her life, her children, and
investments are in danger over “persecution” by the state.
BACKGROUND
On July 16, a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) high court in
Apo granted final forfeiture of properties linked to Achimugu, to the federal
government.
The properties include jewellery worth N4,645,170,294.9
billion, 11 exotic cars worth N4.293 billion, $50,000 and N30 million in cash.
In March, a federal high court in Abuja granted an order of
final forfeiture of the sum of $13 million linked to Achimugu and her firm,
Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd.
The ruling followed a suit filed by the EFCC challenging the
ownership of the funds, which it said were proceeds of unlawful activities.
In January 2024, Achimugu made the headlines when she set
the Caribbean Island of Grenada alight with a seven-day 50th birthday party
attended by some of the crème de la crème of the Nigerian entertainment
industry and prominent figures.
Over a year after, the EFCC declared Achimugu wanted over
money laundering allegations. On April 29, 2025, EFCC arrested the
businesswoman at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
‘EFCC’S MALICIOUS ACTIONS AGAINST ME’
The businesswoman said the “malicious nature” of EFCC’s
action was confirmed after the agency declared her wanted despite knowing her
whereabouts and exchanging letters with her.
Achimugu alleged that immediately after she was declared
wanted, 30 EFCC operatives “invaded my home, terrorized my family, embarrassed
my environment and carted away all my jewelleries, safes, and personal funds in
a cruel and unprofessional manner for reasons best known to them”.
She added that her mother, who just returned from spine
surgery abroad, was ordered to sit for hours and “emotionally humiliated with
no consideration for her age or health”.
Achimugu said the forfeited $13 million linked to her firm
was meant for the payment of oil blocks to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum
Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
“As part of the same push, a further media campaign
attempted to link me to US$7,000,000 allegedly abandoned in a bank, a claim
contradicted by the same clear payment tellers already submitted to NUPRC,
showing $2,000,000 paid through a South African Bank in South Africa directly
to NUPRC’s designated account on PPL 3007 and $5,000,000 on PPL 302 as part of
Oceangate’s proof of payment,” the statement reads.
“Yet the EFCC nonetheless continued to press the allegation
in court filings and in the social media space. In the continuous campaign to
smear my character.
“Having failed to sustain that particular allegation, the
EFCC turned its attention to the remainder of the same NUPRC payment that my
company submitted.
“Thirteen Million Dollars ($13,000,000) out of the total
Twenty Million Dollars ($20,000,000) combined payment for both PPL 302-DO and
PPL 3007 by Oceangate Oil & Gas Limited into NUPRC’s federal government
account, which EFCC also acknowledged in the motion submitted to their claim
which was made subject to an ex-parte forfeiture order obtained by the EFCC at
the Federal High Court, without any established case or existing petition.
“That order has been challenged on appeal, and I await the
outcome. On 20 January 2026, while both that appeal and my earlier suit over
the first home invasion were still pending, EFCC operatives, at the directive
of the Chairman, invaded my private home a second
time and removed all vehicles on the premises by crane and
flatbed, without regard to ownership, damage, or safety, abandoning them
recklessly to the weather, with no record of offence committed.
“When I sought the court’s intervention for the return of
all my vehicles, after 6 months and other seized personal items for almost 2
years, the EFCC, rather than defend that suit at the Federal High Court,
instead again obtained a further ex-parte order of forfeiture from the High
Court of the Federal Capital Territory on the same suit before them.”
Achimugu said she has lost multiple financial opportunities
owing to “continuous and calculated smearing” of her name by the EFCC.
“The EFCC did not stop at nothing, they also directed that
my visa be revoked by the American Embassy in Abuja Nigeria, for merely
declaring me wanted which was unjustified,” she said.
“It is a known information that visa revocations are
initiated by the Department of State in Washington and not by reason of alleged
unconcluded investigation.
“I received the email of the revocation on the 4th April
2025, 7 days after I was declared wanted by the EFCC. The most devastating and
heartbreaking extended malice was communicated to the American Embassy in
Bridgestone (Barbados ) the Embassy that covers my second citizenship.
“I discovered the most devastating information when I could
not proceed with an application for a visa on my Grenada passport which was to
enable me to attend my already booked and scheduled Harvard executive program,
when I already knew that my American visa revocation was showing active only
from the records in Nigeria.
“So I thought I could get a waiver, but the worst was
discovered, when I was told I could not, until I am clear with my birth
country.”
She added that “I have never been known to be a
troublemaker. I am not a criminal and I have never been convicted of any
offence that I did not own up to”.
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