A former consultant with the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Steve Ogidan, has forfeited ₦1.582 billion in alleged illicit funds to the Federal Government following a Supreme Court judgment affirming the legality of the forfeiture.
The apex court upheld the concurrent decisions of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, dismissing Ogidan’s appeal for lacking merit and ordering him to pay the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) ₦5 million as costs.
The judgment was delivered on June 19, 2026, by a five-member panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Habeeb Adewale Abiru, which affirmed the June 20, 2025, decision of the Court of Appeal.
The appellate court, in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Okon Abang, had held that the trial court acted within the provisions of the law in ordering the final forfeiture of the funds to the Federal Government.
In its decision, the Supreme Court observed that Ogidan and other parties connected to the matter had voluntarily returned the disputed funds as part of an out-of-court settlement. Justice Abiru held that the development further reinforced the trial court’s decision to grant the final forfeiture order.
According to the EFCC, investigations established reasonable grounds to suspect that the ₦1.582 billion represented proceeds of unlawful activities. The anti-graft agency alleged that Ogidan received bribes from consultants he was assigned to monitor and supervise during his engagement with NIRSAL.
Acting on the outcome of its investigation, 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, which was subsequently made final after the court was satisfied with the Commission’s application.
Unhappy with the decision, Ogidan challenged the final forfeiture order before the Court of Appeal, arguing that the trial court wrongly relied on Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act in directing that the money be forfeited to the Federal Government.
However, after hearing the appeal on April 10, 2025, the appellate court dismissed the case and affirmed the lower court’s ruling.
Still dissatisfied, Ogidan proceeded to the Supreme Court, where the apex court rejected his arguments, holding that both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal had properly applied the law.
The court consequently dismissed the appeal in its entirety and awarded ₦5 million in costs against him in favour of the EFCC.
The Commission further disclosed that its investigation uncovered payments totalling ₦9,599,286,680.21 made by NIRSAL to eight consulting firms linked to Ogidan between December 2015 and June 2021.
The companies identified by the EFCC are Successory Nigeria Limited, Beresh Consulting Limited, Blue Accord Nigeria Limited, Global Knowledge Consulting Limited, Freshvine Agribiz Limited, Richtigen Limited, O Stevens Consulting, and Proteus and Enterprise Aesthetics.
Although the investigation traced more than ₦9.59 billion in payments to the companies over the six-year period, the court proceedings specifically resulted in the final forfeiture of ₦1.582 billion, which the EFCC maintained constituted proceeds of unlawful activities.
The Supreme Court’s decision brings the prolonged legal dispute over the funds to a definitive close.