Flamboyant businesswoman and socialite, Aisha Achimugu has fled Nigeria after discovering that theEconomic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
Flamboyant businesswoman and socialite, Aisha Achimugu has fled Nigeria after discovering that theEconomic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has obtained an arrest warrant against her, preparatory to declaring her wanted for alleged money laundering and investment scam.
Achimugu, a close friend of Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos State, allegedly fled Nigeria after she was billed to meet with EFCC interrogators on 5 March.
Investigators discovered that she allegedly escaped from Nigeria sometime between Thursday 6 and Friday 7 March.
Top-level anti-graft officials, who asked not to be named because they were not authorised to discuss the matter with the media, revealed the development.
The EFCC obtained a warrant of arrest from the court following the socialite’s failure to honour the commission’s invitation on 5 March.
An EFCC source said her escape from the country was a betrayal of the benefit of doubt extended to her that she would honour the agency’s invitation earlier in the month.
Last week, Achimugu launched a media campaign to deny her arrest by the EFCC after news about her ordeal was first published by The Street Journal.
The newspaper had reported that a civil society group had launched a petition against her, accusing her of shady dealings in a multi-million-naira contract awarded to her company by a South-West state.
In a widely circulated statement, Achimugu denied being arrested by the EFCC adding that the story of her arrest was the handiwork of unscrupulous elements.
She further urged the public to disregard the supposed ‘fake news,’ adding that she was not in the country and so could not have been arrested by the EFCC.
On 24 January 2024, IvoryNG reported how Sanwo-Olu attended Achimugu’s 50th birthday party which spanned one week in one of the most expensive resorts in the world at the Caribbean Island of Grenada
When news of his sighting at the party made the headlines, officials of his government claimed he was in the Caribbean country on official engagement.
