Appeal Court rejects EFCC bid to challenge bank account ruling against Aisha Achimugu at Supreme Court

The Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has dismissed an application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seeking permission to challenge an earlier appellate court judgment at the Supreme Court in its ongoing legal dispute with businesswoman Aisha Achimugu.

The decision, delivered on Thursday, marks another legal setback for the anti-graft agency in its prolonged dispute with Achimugu, which has involved investigations, asset seizures, the freezing of personal and corporate bank accounts, and multiple court proceedings.

In its ruling, the appellate court held that the EFCC had failed to provide sufficient grounds to justify granting the leave it sought to pursue the matter before the Supreme Court.

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.

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.

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