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 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.
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.
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. I have never been confronted with any crime that I did not own up to”.
