A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the final forfeiture of jewelries and cars worth more than N8.9 billion linked to businesswoman Aisha Achimugu to the Federal Government.
A judge, Jude Onwugbuzie, granted the order on Thursday, July 16, following an application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which sought the permanent forfeiture of the assets as part of its ongoing investigation into Achimugu’s financial dealings.
According to the EFCC, the forfeited assets comprise Jewellery valued at N4,645,170,294.90; 11 exotic vehicles worth N4.293 billion; $50,000 in cash; and N30 million in cash.
In its statement announcing the judgment on its social media handle, the anti-graft agency said the court granted its application after being satisfied that the legal conditions for final forfeiture had been met.
The ruling marks another significant development in the series of court-ordered asset recoveries involving Achimugu.
The forfeiture follows months of legal fireworks between the EFCC and Achimugu over assets the commission alleges are proceeds of unlawful activities.
In March 2026, one of the judges of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Emeka Nwite, ordered the final forfeiture of $13 million linked to Achimugu and her company, Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Limited, after ruling that the funds were proceeds of unlawful activities.
The court rejected the company’s argument that the money represented gifts received by Achimugu and proceeds from legitimate oil and gas contracts, holding that neither Achimugu nor the company provided sufficient evidence to establish the lawful source of the funds.
Nwite held that the EFCC had successfully demonstrated that the money was reasonably suspected to be proceeds of fraud and that the company failed to discharge the burden of proving otherwise.
Thursday’s judgment significantly expands the value of assets permanently recovered from Achimugu, adding more than N8.9 billion in jewellery, luxury vehicles and cash to the earlier $13 million already forfeited to the Federal Government.
The EFCC has maintained that the forfeiture proceedings formed part of its broader efforts to recover assets suspected to have been acquired through unlawful means in accordance with Nigeria’s anti-corruption laws.
The latest ruling marks another forfeiture the EFCC has gotten consecutively this week.
The ICIR reported on Wednesday, July 15, that the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the final forfeiture of 48 properties linked to former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to the Federal Government after holding that the EFCC established the legal threshold of reasonable suspicion required under Nigeria’s civil forfeiture law.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.