Renowned Nigerian businesswoman and investor, Dr. Aisha Achimugu (OFR), has broken her silence, speaking out after nearly two years of what she describes as an “unrelenting and unjust assault” on her personal rights, businesses and family members.
Achimugu, in a statement made available on Tuesday, strongly condemned what she termed an ongoing media trial and called for immediate respect for the rule of law and valid court orders, while she equally called for the protection of her life, the safety of her children, and the preservation of her hard-earned business legacy.
A prominent accountant, philanthropist, and widow of the late Engr. Sulaiman Akowe Achimugu, respected former managing director of the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), Dr. Achimugu emphasized that her family name has always been synonymous with integrity and national service, warning that the aggressive actions taken against her personal rights and businesses threaten over $100 million in local and international investments, casting a dark shadow over the enabling environment required for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Nigeria.
“I call for the protection of my life, the lives of my children, the protection of my privacy, an end to the misleading media trial on my person and the companies I have built with credibility and capacity over several years. I equally call for respect of court orders, and the protection of over $100 million I have within the oil & gas sector, and several sectors both in Nigeria and internationally,” she stated.
The celebrity businesswoman clarified in her statement that her long public silence was not borne out of fear or guilt, but rather out of personal restraint and a deep respect for national interest. Highlighting her long-standing contributions to the country’s economy, Achimugu recalled her significant role in driving national growth, including her sole proposal to the Ministry of Transport that led to an international roadshow across 30 countries and ultimately birthed the multi-million-dollar Ibom Deep Sea Port project.
Tracing the genesis of her legal troubles to 2023, Achimugu stated that the Port Harcourt zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) wrongly froze her personal bank accounts, alongside those of her children and her companies within the Felak Group. She revealed that the agency had misled the Federal High Court into granting an interim forfeiture order under the mistaken impression that she was an associate or shareholder of MBA Forex, a company later declared a Ponzi scheme by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“Sometime in 2023, the Port Harcourt zonal office of the EFCC wrongly froze all my personal bank accounts, those of my children, my companies within the Felak Group, and the group account itself, having misled the Federal High Court (FHC) into granting an order of interim forfeiture, on the mistaken premise that I was a partner, associate, director or shareholder of a company called MBA Forex and Capital Investment. In January 2024, a separate invitation letter from the EFCC raised the same MBA Forex matter again. My legal counsel and I honoured the invitation and clarified the true, limited nature of my company’s dealings with MBA. We had simply carried out and been paid for a single transaction on the company’s behalf, because the CBN had publicly declared MBA a Ponzi scheme. I held no ownership stake in MBA Forex. To close the matter, we refunded N58,000,000 relating to that transaction by bank draft to the EFCC recovery account, which I was told settled my company involvement on the investigation on the petition of the aggrieved people. This cleared the mistaken impression that I, my children and my companies were part-owners of MBA or had any stake or involvement with them,” she explained.
However, the situation escalated dramatically in March 2025. While she was traveling abroad, Achimugu said she received an informal invitation via an anonymous WhatsApp message to report to the EFCC office. “My legal counsel was promptly hand-delivered and stamped an official letter to the agency explaining my temporary unavailability and confirming my willingness to report on April 27 and 28, 2025. Despite this documented cooperation, a massive social media and press campaign was unleashed to defame my character, and I was immediately declared a wanted person, for conspiracy and money laundering, she stated.
According to Achimugu, the timing of the EFCC’s declaration points to a malicious agenda. The ‘wanted’ notice was published just four hours after her company, Oceangate Oil & Gas Limited, submitted official proof of payment to the NUPRC totaling $20,000,000 for the acquisition of oil blocks PPL 302-DO and PPL 3007. Immediately following the declaration, she said that over 30 armed operatives invaded her home, terrorized her family, and carted away her safes, jewelry, and personal funds without stating a clear offense. Seeking refuge in the judiciary, Achimugu filed a fundamental rights suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja, which ordered all parties to maintain the status quo. And trusting the judicial process, she said she flew back to Nigeria on April 28, 2025.
However, upon her arrival at the airport, she said she was intercepted by EFCC operatives and escorted to their headquarters. Defending her track record as a law-abiding citizen, Achimugu has demanded an immediate end to the aggressive intimidation, asserting that “the continuous disregard for court orders and the destruction of indigenous capacity undermines the very fabric of justice and economic progress in Nigeria”.
Expanding on her defense against the allegations, Dr. Achimugu has detailed her multi-billion naira philanthropic footprints across Nigeria, expressing shock that her extensive contributions to national development are being met with institutional defamation. The industrialist outlined decades of wide-ranging humanitarian interventions, including the construction of primary healthcare centers, schools, modern sanitary facilities, and community water projects across multiple states, alongside the building of several churches and mosques to foster community cohesion.
According to Achimugu, her investments in human capital include financing academic scholarships for over 2,000 Nigerian students, providing critical educational support to more than 10,000 children, and operating an active food bank designed to sustain low-income families. Reflecting on a record that features over 3,000 successful community outreach initiatives and dedicated medical bill intervention programs, the business leader lamented that these patriotic efforts have been eclipsed by an aggressive regulatory assault.
“I never envisioned my transparent life’s work would become the basis upon which my businesses would be discredited, my character slandered, and my children subjected to constant fear regarding my personal safety,” Achimugu stated, while she revealed that the operational reach of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) extended to international diplomatic channels where, she alleged, the anti-graft agency directed the American Embassy in Abuja to revoke her United States visa, a punitive measure she labels as “entirely unjustified and built solely upon the agency’s hasty decision to declare me a wanted person”.
Achimugu maintained that such extreme steps disregard her documented cooperative correspondence with authorities and represent a calculated effort to dismantle both her global standing and indigenous business capacity.
In an emotionally charged final statement , Dr. Aisha Achimugu sounded an urgent global alarm, declaring that her life, her children’s safety, and her multi-million dollar international investments are under existential threat due to a relentless “campaign of hate” and unlawful media trial allegedly spearheaded by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), detailing how the domestic allegations have systematically crippled her international status and dual-citizenship privileges. Following the EFCC’s wanted declaration, she said that the U.S. Department of State revoked her American visa on April 4, 2025. The crisis deepened when the issue was reportedly extended to the American Embassy in Barbados, which oversees her second citizenship with Grenada.
The industrialist said she discovered she had been blacklisted globally when she was denied a visa waiver on her Grenadian passport, blocking her from attending a long-scheduled Harvard executive programme. Diplomatic records in Grenada tagged her as a fugitive, citing her involvement in a $1.5 billion oil deal signed by her firm, Oceangate Oil and Gas Engineering, under the Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell administration. Achimugu expressed deep grief over this level of destruction, questioning why a regulatory body would deliberately move to crush a citizen’s lawful investments and relationships outside the shores of Nigeria.
Maintaining her innocence, Achimugu emphasized that she is not a criminal, has no prior convictions, and has consistently respected the Nigerian Constitution by honouring over 20 separate EFCC invitations. Despite her full cooperation, the anti-graft agency, she said, escalated its tactics.
On Thursday, July 16, 2026, she said that the EFCC’s media trial took a shocking turn when the agency publicly displayed an array of luxury vehicles, high-end jewelry, and massive cash sums allegedly tied to her, a move Achimugu claimed was calculated to incite public outrage and compromise her physical security. She noted that this display was executed with absolute disregard for the psychological well-being of her young children, who depend on her as their sole surviving parent.
“The ongoing persecution has severely damaged my corporate standings, causing international collaborators to withdraw and stalling returns on massive active investments,” she stressed. While clarifying that her patriotism remains unshaken, Achimugu stated that the actions of the current EFCC leadership have completely misrepresented the nation that once allowed her indigenous capacity to thrive. Consequently, she has issued a formal petition to the National Assembly, the Judiciary, local and international human rights organizations, and the global business community to intervene, warning that if such blatant disregard for court orders and private assets can happen to an investor of her scale, no law-abiding citizen is safe.
She concluded by reaffirming her readiness to face the law, “provided that due process is strictly followed”, stating that her legal teams are aggressively pursuing remedies both in local courts and through international legal frameworks to restore her hard-earned reputation.
