Appeal Court rejects EFCC’s Supreme Court bid against Aisha Achimugu, upholds earlier ruling on bank accounts

THE Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Thursday, dealt another significant blow to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in its protracted legal battle with prominent businesswoman, Aisha Achimugu, dismissing the commission’s application for leave to challenge an earlier appellate judgment at the Supreme Court.

The ruling, delivered yesterday (Thursday), represents another important judicial victory for Achimugu, whose prolonged confrontation with the anti-graft agency has involved investigations, asset seizures, the freezing of corporate and personal bank accounts and several court proceedings.

In dismissing the EFCC application, the appellate court held that the commission had failed to establish sufficient grounds to justify granting the permission sought.

According to an excerpt of the ruling, the court declared that the commission’s motion for leave to appeal its earlier judgment to the Supreme Court “lacks merit and accordingly dismissed.”

The decision leaves undisturbed, for now, the substantive judgment delivered by the same appellate court on July 22, which discharged an interim order freezing her bank accounts linked to Achimugu and corporate entities associated with her.

It also constitutes a fresh procedural setback for the EFCC in its efforts to sustain the restrictions earlier imposed on the businesswoman’s financial operations.

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The latest development is particularly significant because the earlier Court of Appeal judgment had raised fundamental questions about the manner in which investigating agencies deploy interim freezing orders and the limits of their statutory powers in relation to private individuals and corporate organisations.

In that judgment, a three-member panel comprising Justices Muhammad Ibrahim Sirajo, Ishaq Mohammed Sani and Eleojo Enenche unanimously vacated the freezing order initially granted by the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt on April 10, 2025.