The court of appeal in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, has dismissed an application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seeking leave to challenge a judgment that vacated an order freezing 124 bank accounts linked to Aisha Achimugu, a businesswoman
The appellate court, in a decision delivered on Thursday,
held that EFCC’s application for permission to appeal its earlier judgment at
the supreme court lacked merit.
The ruling leaves intact the July 22 judgment in which the
court discharged an interim order obtained by the EFCC to restrict transactions
on the accounts belonging to Achimugu and corporate entities linked to her.
In its earlier judgment, the court of appeal held that an
interim order freezing the accounts could not remain in force indefinitely
while investigations continued.
On April 10, 2025, Turaki Adamu, a judge of the federal high
court in Port Harcourt, granted the EFCC’s application to freeze 124 bank
accounts linked to Achimugu and associated companies. The order directed the
affected banks to halt outward transactions.
Achimugu subsequently approached the court to set aside the
order, arguing that its continued enforcement amounted to an abuse of court
process.
The dispute also involved N1.8 billion transferred from a
SunTrust Bank account to a recovery account associated with the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) and the EFCC.
On August 27, 2025, Adamu ruled that the transfer was
unlawful and ordered that the money be returned.
The EFCC challenged the ruling at the court of appeal,
arguing, among other things, that the lower court lacked jurisdiction to
deliver its decision during the annual judicial vacation, denied the commission
a fair hearing and failed to properly evaluate the evidence concerning the
accounts and their balances.
In its July 22 judgment, the appellate court rejected the
commission’s arguments on jurisdiction and fair hearing. It held that
delivering a reserved ruling during the court’s annual vacation did not
invalidate the proceedings or occasion a miscarriage of justice.
The court also found that the lower court had the power to
make a consequential order to preserve funds covered by a freezing order.
However, the appellate court set aside the directive to
reverse the N1.8 billion transfer, finding that the evidence did not establish
that the money came from an account covered by the original freezing order.
The panel noted that the relevant current account had a
balance of about N50.5 million, while the N1.8 billion was held in a
fixed-deposit account. It also referred to separate internal ledger accounts
associated with larger sums.
The court stressed that setting aside the reversal order did
not amount to a finding that the EFCC’s directive to transfer the money was
lawful.
Despite ruling in the commission’s favour on the question of
the reversal order, the appellate court vacated the original freezing order in
its entirety.
A three-member panel including Muhammad Sirajo, Ishaq Sani
and Eleojo Enenche, held that allowing an ex parte interim freezing order to
remain in force for more than 15 months amounted to an abuse of court process
and a subversion of the rule of law.
The court said such orders were intended to preserve
disputed funds temporarily pending the hearing and determination of a motion on
notice, rather than operate indefinitely.
The latest decision concerns the EFCC’s attempt to challenge
that appellate judgment at the supreme court. It does not, by itself, determine
the underlying allegations being investigated by the commission.
Achimugu is the founder of Oceangate Engineering Oil &
Gas Ltd and the group managing director of Felak Concept Group.
She has other cases pending with the EFCC.
On July 16, 2026, an FCT high court ordered the final
forfeiture of assets valued at about N8.9 billion linked to her, following an
application by the EFCC.
On October 12, a federal high court in Abuja also dismissed
a N10 billion fundamental rights suit filed by Achimugu against the commission
over the search of her residence and the seizure of her belongings.
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