The Federal High Court (FHC) in Abuja, on Wednesday, made an order for final forfeiture of the sum of 13 million dollars linked to Aisha Achimugu’s Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd.
Justice Emeka Nwite, in a ruling on the motion for final forfeiture of the funds filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), held that neither the company nor Achimugu had been able to show to the court that the money was legitimately gotten.
Justice Nwite held that the argument by Oceangate’s lawyer, Darlington Ozurumba, that the $13 million dollars came from gifts to Achimugu and earnings from gas and oil-related contacts could not be substantiated by material facts.
The judge also dismissed Ozurumba’s argumemt that the court lacked jurisdiction to have granted the Aug. 22, 2025 interim forfeiture while the court sat as vacation court.
The judge agreed with the submission of the EFCC’s lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, that relevant laws, including Order 46(5) of the FHC, Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act, 2006, and others, were complied with in granting the order.
Justice Nwite also described the arguement that the anti-graft agency was a meddlesome interloper since no person or corporate body had approached it to complain that their money was missing as “baseless.”
Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.
Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.
He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.
Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).
He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.
He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.
Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled: Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.
