Supreme Court affirms final forfeiture of N1.58bn linked to ex-NIRSAL consultant

The Supreme Court has affirmed the final forfeiture of **N1.582 billion** linked to a former National Coordinating Consultant of the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, NIRSAL, Steve Ogidan, to the Federal Government.

The judgment, delivered by a five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice Habeeb Adewale Abiru on **June 19, 2026**, upheld the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal, which had sustained the forfeiture order obtained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

According to a statement issued on Monday by the EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, the Supreme Court dismissed Ogidan’s appeal for lacking merit and ordered him to pay **N5 million** to the anti-graft agency as the cost of the action.

The commission said the apex court agreed with the Court of Appeal that both the trial court and the appellate court acted within the provisions of the law in ordering the forfeiture of the funds.

Justice Abiru, while delivering the lead judgment, also noted that Ogidan and other persons connected with the case had voluntarily returned the disputed funds as part of an out-of-court settlement, a development the court said further validated the Federal High Court’s decision ordering the final forfeiture.

The case stemmed from an EFCC investigation, which uncovered what it described as suspicious financial transactions involving the former consultant.

According to the commission, investigations established reasonable grounds to suspect that the N1.582 billion represented proceeds of unlawful activities, particularly alleged bribery received from consultants whom Ogidan was engaged to monitor and supervise under NIRSAL programmes.

Based on its findings, the EFCC, through its counsel, Ndeh Godspower Isotu, approached the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking the forfeiture of the funds.

On **February 5, 2024**, Justice Inyang Ekwo granted an interim forfeiture order in favour of the commission. Following the conclusion of proceedings, the court subsequently ordered the final forfeiture of the money to the Federal Government.

Dissatisfied with the ruling, Ogidan challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal, arguing that the trial court wrongly relied on the provisions of Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act in ordering the forfeiture.

The appeal, which was heard on **April 10, 2025**, was dismissed by the appellate court on **June 20, 2025**, with the court affirming the validity of the forfeiture order.

Still dissatisfied, Ogidan approached the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the concurrent judgments of the lower courts.

However, the apex court dismissed the appeal in its entirety, describing it as unmeritorious and affirming the decisions of both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal.

The EFCC further disclosed that its wider investigation into transactions involving Ogidan revealed that between **December 2015 and June 2021**, eight consulting firms linked to him received a cumulative **N9.599 billion** from NIRSAL.

The companies identified by the commission are **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**.

The anti-graft agency maintained that the Supreme Court’s judgment reinforces its commitment to recovering proceeds of corruption and ensuring that illicitly acquired assets are returned to the Federal Government.