A Nigerian businesswoman who made national headlines last year for throwing a seven-day birthday party at the $132,000 per night Calivigny Island is being investigated for fraud.
In court filings seen by The Africa Report, Nigeria‘s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alleges that Aisha Achimugu channelled $25.3m of unknown origin through bureau-de-change operators to buy two offshore petroleum blocks – PPL 3007 and PPL 302-DO – and to bribe officials at the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
The regulator denies wrongdoing; the blocks, approved in 2024, remain idle.
A second case centres on N200bn (about $125m) raised in what prosecutors call a Ponzi scheme run by MBA Trading and Capital Investment, whose founder, Maxwell Odum, is on the run.
The EFCC said they “traced various sums of money paid by MBA Trading and Capital Investment Limited into the Sun trust bank accounts of Felak Concept Group and Oceangate Engineering Oil and Gas, which are owned by Aisha Achimugu”.
“On 6 October 2020, Felak Concept Group Limited received from MBA Trading and Capital Limited N4bn,” it added.
The EFCC also claims to have traced 136 bank accounts linked to Achimugu across 10 lenders. During a search of her Abuja home on 13 March, it says it seized N30m in cash, $50,000 and boxes of gold, silver and diamonds worth more than N1bn.
EFCC on a ‘fishing expedition’
Achimugu, widowed in 2020 when her husband, Suleiman, became Nigeria’s first Covid-19 fatality, rejects the allegations. Her lawyers insist the money flows came from “legitimate commercial activities” and accuse the EFCC of a fishing expedition. On 4 April, she filed a rights suit in Abuja to bar her arrest and to recover the valuables seized in March; the case will be heard in May.
Her taste for luxury first caught the public eye in January 2024 when she rented Calivigny Island, Grenada, at $132,000 a night for a week-long birthday jamboree. Guests, ferried by private jet, sipped champagne on the 65-metre Silver Angel; the hostess, local papers gasped, changed outfits more than 30 times, and flaunted Hermès crocodile handbags worth up to $80,000 each.
Three weeks later, the EFCC summoned her. She attended once, then left Nigeria. After she ignored a second summons in February 2025, the agency declared her wanted on 28 March. If she remains abroad, extradition could prove tricky – high-profile graft cases often stall in Nigerian courts. EFCC’s new chairman, Ola Olukoyede, is keen to show that the watchdog still packs a punch.
For now, Achimugu insists she will clear her name. Investors who lost their savings to MBA Trading, and a government that can ill afford fresh scandals, will be watching to see whether this probe ends in another judicial cul-de-sac – or a rare conviction.
(The Africa Report)
