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Stella Oduah, the Anambra-born oil executive who founded Sea Petroleum and Gas Company Limited in 1992 and later served as Nigeria's aviation minister under President Goodluck Jonathan, walked out of an Abuja courtroom on Thursday without a fraud conviction after prosecutors struck a deal that removed her personally from a N2.5 billion case.
The Stella Oduah discharge, alongside that of her former aide Gloria Odita, followed a plea bargain agreement reached between the parties. Judge Hamza Muazu formally ordered the outcome after Rotimi Oyedepo, counsel to the federal government, confirmed that the prosecution had dropped charges against both women. Muazu also struck out the earlier charge dated Oct. 13, 2025, which had listed both individuals as defendants, closing the criminal case against them personally.
Companies convicted, funds forfeited
The prosecution did not walk away empty-handed. In an amended two-count charge, Oyedepo retained two companies linked to the case, Sobora International Limited and Global Offshore and Marine Limited, as defendants. The government accused Sobora of unlawfully possessing N838 million and alleged that Global Offshore and Marine held N1.629 billion.
Oduah appeared in court as the representative of both firms and entered guilty pleas on their behalf. Oyedepo then urged Muazu to convict the companies, order their dissolution and direct the forfeiture of N1.2 billion already submitted as restitution in a bank draft, along with N780 million recovered during the investigation. Defense counsel Onyechi Ikpeazu and Wale Balogun did not object to the application.
Muazu convicted both companies on the strength of the guilty pleas, ordered them wound up and directed that the combined N1.98 billion be forfeited to the federal government. The ruling drew a financial line under a case that had been building since late last year.
A case rooted in 2014
Prosecutors had arraigned Oduah and Odita in December 2025 on a five-count charge that included fraud, obtaining by false pretense and criminal breach of trust. The government alleged that both defendants conspired in January 2014 to fraudulently obtain N2.4 billion from the Federal Ministry of Aviation through Broad Waters Resources Nigeria Limited and Global Offshore Marine Limited. Both had initially pleaded not guilty before the Stella Oduah discharge was secured through the plea bargain. The alleged offenses contravene Sections 8(a) and 1(1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud Act, punishable under Section 1(3).
Oduah, 63, left the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in 1992 to found Sea Petroleum and Gas, building it into a significant downstream player with marine tankers, coastal vessels, storage depots and retail outlets across Nigeria. She became one of the more prominent women in the country's oil sector before transitioning into government, serving as aviation minister from July 2011 to February 2014. She later won a Senate seat representing Anambra North Senatorial District in the 2015 elections. Thursday's ruling closes a legal chapter that stretches back more than a decade.
