The Lagos State government, led by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over illicit $13 million traced to socialite and businesswoman Aisha Achimugu, PREMIUM TIMES confirmed on Wednesday from officials familiar with the case.
It was gathered that the EFCC began scrutinising the Lagos State Government’s connection to the funds after investigators discovered that part of the funds was sourced from contractors working for or providing services to the Lagos State Government.
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“The facts about the origin of the funds are already public in court documents, but the full details of how a large chunk of the money was sourced from some contractors offering services to Lagos State Government’, the identities of the contractors and the possible involvement of the governor and other government officials have not been disclosed in order not to jeopardise ongoing investigations,” a source told PREMIUM TIMES on the condition of anonymity due to lack of authorisation to speak publicly on the case.
On Wednesday, the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered a permanent forfeiture of the $13 million to the Nigerian government, citing its fraudulent origin.
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Later on Wednesday, PREMIUM TIMES made unsuccessful attempts to get the comment of the Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Lawal Pedro, and the state’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, on the disclosure in the suit tracing part of the suspicious funds to the state’s contractors and EFCC’s investigations into the governor regarding the finances.
Neither of the two officials returned our reporter’s phone calls or responded to text or WhatsApp messages.
It remained unclear how the alleged scheme was executed. However, investigators say it remains curious that the contractors paid large sums to Ms Achimugu’s company without any valid business relationship with the firm or its owner.
It is also unclear whether Mr Sanwo-Olu is aware of or participated in the alleged scheme, or whether he is merely being investigated because he leads the administration under which the payments occurred.
How it started
EFCC, which instituted the forfeiture proceedings last year following extensive investigations into Ms Achimugu, her companies, suspected agents and business associates, gave details of how the suspicious $13 million was scraped together from sources, including unnamed Lagos State Government contractors.
The funds, according to EFCC’s assets forfeiture filing, were raised between March and April 2025 as part-payment for the acquisition of oil blocks.
According to the EFCC, one of Ms Achimugu’s firms, Oceangate Engineering Limited, which was at the centre of the suspicious transactions, successfully bid for the two oil blocks – Petroleum Prospecting Licences (PPLs) – in 2024.
One of the oil blocks was Deep Offshore PPL 302, and the other was Shallow Water PPL 3007.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) subsequently notified the company of its status as a winning bidder and the conditions it needed to meet to be issued the licences.
EFCC said the successful bidder needed to pay $37.2 million to the federal government to close the deal on the two oil blocks.
The payments
Oceangate Engineering had made a $20 million part-payment as of the time EFCC waded into the matter in April 2025, the anti-graft agency’s investigator, Usman Aliyu, stated in the affidavits filed in support of the forfeiture proceedings.
Mr Aliyu said Oceangate Engineering paid the $20 million to the federal government in several instalments from 20 March 2025 to 3 April 2025.
He gave a breakdown of the payments.
According to the EFCC detective, Providus Bank Limited transferred $7 million to the federal government on behalf of Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Limited on 27 and 28 March 2025.
He added that Oceangate Engineering also transferred a total of $13 million through its Zenith Bank account number 5074678281 to the federal government in seven instalments during the period.
The instalments are as follows: $1.1 million, $1.1 million, $3.8 million, $1.2 million, $3.05 million, $2.1 million, and $500,000.
Mr Aliyu said Oceangate Engineering, a limited liability company incorporated on 25 February 2005, used funds reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity to acquire oil blocks from NURPC.
Agents used and Lagos contractors’ contributions.
He said the firm conspired with some unlicensed Bureau de Change (BDC) operators and bank officials to obtain the $13 million, which it transferred to the federal government. Some of the agents were named in the court filing.
“That one Suleiman Muhammed Chiroma was procured and aided by Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Limited to collect through his associates in cash and without going through a financial institution, both in Abuja and Lagos, the total sum of $13,000,000.00.
“That whilst acting in concert with Oceangate Limited, Muhammed Chiroma engaged one Dantani Abubakar Hassan of Ashrab Energy and Oil Services Limited and one Tirmizi Muhammed Usman of Tripple A & Tee Oil Nigeria Limited, to collect the said $9 million in cash and without going through a financial Institution for the sole purpose of using same to pay for the signature bonuses of the two oil blocks allocated to Oceangate Oil and Gas Limited,” Mr Aliyu’s affidavit read.
He said the company engaged Mr Chiroma, Tirmizi Usman and Dantani Hassan to receive suspicious funds from different contractors with the Lagos State Government.
He added that one Dantani Abubakar used his company, Ashrab Energy and Oil Services Limited, with account number 1229255048, domiciled with Zenith Bank Plc, to receive and retain illicit funds from different contractors with the state government.
He specifically said over N855 million, later converted to dollars, was sourced from the state government’s contractors.
“That whilst still working in concert with Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Limited and Suleiman Chiroma, Dantani Abubakar used his company, Ashrab Energy and Oil Services Limited with account Number 1907084038 domiciled in Access Bank Plc to receive and retain the total sum of N855,057,560.00 from different contractors executing contracts for and on behalf of the Lagos State Government which sum reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity.”
He said the combined sum of over N2.4 billion (N2,455, 651, 560) received in both Zenith and Access Bank accounts of Ashrab Energy was converted to US dollars and subsequently transferred to Oceangate’s Zenith Bank account for onward payment for the signature bonus of the two oil blocks, PPL 302 and PPL 3007, allocated to the company, among other averments.
Mr Aliyu said the $13 million used by Oceangate to pay for the Signature Bonuses in respect of PPL302 and PPL3007 were not proceeds of any lawful and legitimate business of Oceangate but rather represent funds reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity.
According to him, part of the funds used by Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas Limited to pay the Signature bonuses in respect of PPL 302 and PPL 3007 was derived from a part of the Lagos State Government’s transfers to contractors for the execution of projects intended to benefit the people of the state.
The investigator said that there was never any contractual or business relationship between Oceangate and the contractors who transferred the public funds to the company’s account.
But Oceangate Engineering denied any wrongdoing and urged the court to dismiss the forfeiture proceedings.
In an affidavit sworn by Iliya Wakil, who identified as a director of the firm, denied any conspiracy with unregistered BDC operators and bank officials to retain or transfer illicit funds.
It maintained that Suleiman Chiroma, referred to by the EFCC, was a licensed BDC agent lawfully engaged by the company to help it source the US dollars needed to settle the signature bonuses for the PPL 302 and PPL 3007 oil blocks, as the fees were required to be paid in dollars.
The company official stated that Mr Chiroma acted independently and without any control by Oceangate Limited.
The director said the company did not know Dantani Hassan or the company known as Ashrab Energy and Oil Services Limited.
He denied Oceangate knowing any Tirmizi Usman or Tripple A & Tee Oil Nigeria Limited, insisting that the company had never met, dealt with, or transacted with either of them.
Judge Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja ruled on Wednesday that the explanations made by Ms Achimugu’s company for the suspicious payments were not convincing. He said he was not persuaded that the company had legitimately earned the money.
Governor Sanwo-Olu and Achimugu’s relationship
PREMIUM TIMES had reported the close relationship between Governor Sanwo-Olu and Ms Achimugu more than a year before EFCC’s probe into the oil block transactions became public.
The newspaper exclusively reported how Mr Sanwo-Olu abandoned work for days in January 2024 to party in the Caribbean Island of Grenada in commemoration of Ms Achimugu’s 50th birthday. Ms Achimugu turned 50 on 22 January 2024. She is now 52.
According to the PREMIUM TIMES report, Mr Sanwo-Olu flew in a private aircraft to the Caribbean Island and took residency in one of the most expensive resorts in the world to be part of the party.
He left many officials back home scrambling to figure out his whereabouts.
A website dedicated to the seven-day birthday party included information regarding visa arrangements, available chauffeurs, travel schedules, and the nearest airport to the event venue, among other details for the guests. The festivities commenced on 16 January with the arrival of guests.
But the governor, in his reaction to this newspaper’s report via his official X account @jidesanwoolu at the time, said he had travelled to Grenada deliberately to advance his state’s economic interests. He neither denied nor confirmed attending the birthday party.
Early sign of Governor Sanwo-Olu probe
The first sign that Mr Sanwo-Olu was possibly under EFCC investigation surfaced in October 2024, when a report circulated that the Lagos State governor had filed a suit to ward off EFCC investigations.
In the suit, the governor reportedly sought a declaration that the threat of his arrest and detention was illegal, unconstitutional and a violation of his fundamental rights.
It added that the governor sought an order restraining the EFCC from harassing, arresting and detaining him over his governance.
The report also stated that one Martha Kanu, claimed in an affidavit filed in support of the suit, that she was briefed on the suit’s details by the governor via teleconference.
She said she believed the governor’s briefing to be true. She reportedly said the governor told her that EFCC officials planned to arrest his aides and family members over allegations of fund diversion.
In what also appeared to shed further light on the scope of the relationship between Mr Sanwo-Olu and Ms Achimugu, the controversial suit was filed by Darlington Ozurumba, the lawyer who also defended Ms Achimugu’s Oceangate Engineering in the $13 million forfeiture proceedings.
In the wake of the wide publicity the suit received, the Lagos State Government denied that the governor had authorised the filing of the suit, while also expressing doubts about the existence of any legal action.
“We need to clarify that Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, at no time, sued or briefed any legal practitioner to file a suit on his behalf concerning the above subject matter,” the Lagos State Government said in a statement issued on 30 October 2024 by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Lawal Pedro.
“It is disingenuous for the Governor, who enjoys immunity as conferred on him by the Constitution and has almost three years ahead of him, to brief any lawyer on this kind of matter.”
Mr Pedro also denied the claim that the EFCC was investigating the Lagos State governor. He insisted that the EFCC had never invited or threatened to arrest the governor or any member of his staff.
Mr Pedro also vouched for Mr Sanwo-Olu’s judicious use of the state’s resources.
Although Mr Ozurumba appeared in court as the plaintiff’s lawyer to prosecute the case, the statement said that the origin of the reports about the purported suit was under investigation. It also cautioned media organisations to desist from circulating such misleading reports without proper investigation.
On 31 October 2024, a day after the Lagos State Government disowned the suit on behalf of the governor, EFCC filed its response to the suit categorically denying investigating or harassing the governor or any member of his family and staff.
But this was months before the oil block transactions took place.
Ms Achimugu and controversies
Ms Achimugu’s lifestyle has drawn public attention and controversy in the last two years.
Her January 2024 birthday extravaganza in Grenada and the $13 million forfeiture case are examples.
In 2025, EFCC declared her wanted in a 28 March 2025 public notice over her alleged involvement in money laundering and a Ponzi scheme. EFCC linked her to the controversial MBA Trading and Capital Limited.
The declaration prompted Ms Achimugu to file a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/626/2025 seeking to restrain the EFCC and other agencies from arresting or detaining her.
She argued that her rights to freedom of movement, dignity, and privacy were under threat.
On 28 April 2025, the judge, Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordered her to submit herself to the EFCC for questioning.
The following day, EFCC arrested her at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja upon her arrival from London at about 5 a.m. She has since been released from custody but continues facing investigations.
Although she has not been charged with any offence, her name has been linked to suspicious funds in an ongoing criminal trial, while investigations into her continue.
