A Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has set aside a previous judicial order that froze 124 bank accounts connected to Nigerian businesswoman Aisha Achimugu and her associated corporate entities.

The unanimous decision was delivered by a three-member panel of justices consisting of Muhammad Ibrahim Sirajo, Ishaq Mohammed Sani, and Eleojo Enenche.

The appellate court declared that maintaining an interim restriction for well over 15 months amounted to an abuse of judicial processes and a breach of the rule of law.

The original temporary freezing order was issued by Justice Turaki Adamu of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt on April 10, 2025. This came after an ex-parte application submitted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which halted all outgoing financial transactions across the 124 accounts linked to the founder of Oceangate Engineering Oil & Gas Ltd.

Dissatisfied with the prolonged constraint, Achimugu’s legal team filed an appeal arguing that the indefinite nature of the order was unjust. Agreeing with the defense, the Appeal Court ruled in her favor, nullifying the lower court’s decision and restoring full control of the affected accounts.

Additionally, the appellate court overturned a separate directive from the trial court that had instructed the EFCC to refund 1.8 billion naira into a SunTrust Bank account. The justices explained that the evidence presented failed to demonstrate that this specific account was among the original 124 accounts covered by the initial freezing order.