Foremost energy firm, Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Limited, has rejected the implications of a recent Federal High Court ruling, ordering the forfeiture of its assets, maintaining that the decision did not establish any wrongdoing against the company or its leadership.
This was as a group, The New Gatekeepers, has alleged clandestine and sinister agenda linking the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu with the Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Limited case, saying it was a deliberate agenda setting, targeting the post-Sanwo-Olu era.
The Federal High Court in Abuja recently ordered the sum of $13 million traced to businesswoman and socialite Aisha Achimugu’s firm to be permanently forfeited to the Nigerian government.
Delivering judgement on the forfeiture application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the judge, Emeka Nwite, held that both the company, Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd, and Ms. Achimugu failed to prove that the money was legitimately earned.
Nwite struck down the argument by Oceangate’s lawyer, Darlington Ozurumba, that the $13 million dollars came from gifts to Ms Achimugu and earnings from gas and oil-related contact. The judge held that the claim could not be substantiated by material facts.
However, in a statement by the Company Secretary, Barrister Nnenna Onyeaso, the firm described the ruling as a civil asset forfeiture order predicated on suspicion rather than proof, stressing that it fell short of a criminal finding of liability.
The company disclosed that it had already activated the appellate process, instructing its lawyers to challenge the ruling at a higher court. It expressed confidence that a detailed judicial review would vindicate its operations and corporate conduct.
“The appellate process exists for exactly this kind of outcome,” the statement noted, adding that it remainedconfident that “a thorough review of the facts would speak for itself.”
Despite the ruling, the firm said its operations remainedunaffected, reaffirming its commitment to Nigeria’s energy sector and its role in job creation and economic contribution.
