Supreme Court affirms final forfeiture of N1.58bn linked to ex-NIRSAL consultant
The Supreme Court has upheld the final forfeiture of N1.582 billion linked to former National Coordinating Consultant of the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Steve Ogidan, to the Federal Government.
In a judgment delivered on June 19, 2026, a five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice Habeeb Adewale Abiru affirmed the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal, which had upheld the forfeiture order. The court ruled that the decisions of the lower courts were in accordance with the law.
The Supreme Court dismissed Ogidan’s appeal for lacking merit and ordered him to pay the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) N5 million as the cost of the action.
Justice Abiru also observed that Ogidan and others connected to the case had voluntarily returned the funds as part of an out-of-court settlement, describing the development as further validation of the trial court’s decision ordering the final forfeiture.
According to the EFCC, investigations revealed reasonable grounds to suspect that the funds were proceeds of unlawful activities, particularly alleged bribes received from consultants whom Ogidan was responsible for monitoring and supervising during his engagement with NIRSAL.
Acting through its counsel, Ndeh Godspower Isotu, the commission approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, where Justice I.E. Ekwo granted an interim forfeiture order on February 5, 2024. The court subsequently issued a final forfeiture order.
Ogidan challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal, arguing that the trial court wrongly relied on Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act in ordering the forfeiture of the funds to the Federal Government. However, the appellate court dismissed the appeal after hearing the matter on April 10, 2025.
The EFCC further disclosed that its investigation showed that between December 2015 and June 2021, eight companies linked to Ogidan—Successory Nigeria Limited, Beresh Consulting Limited, Blue Accord Nigeria Limited, Global Knowledge Consulting Limited, Freshvine Agribiz Limited, Richtigen Limited, O Stevens Consulting, Proteus and Enterprise Aesthetics—received a cumulative ₦9,599,286,680.21 from NIRSAL.
