EFCC transfers $60 million recovered from Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi's Nestoil to lenders

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Olanipekun Olukoyede, has led a major breakthrough in the Commission's ongoing investigation into the alleged criminal aspects of transactions involving Nestoil Limited and a consortium of its lenders.

At a meeting convened and chaired by the EFCC Chairman, a structured repayment plan was agreed between Nestoil Limited and the consortium of lenders as part of efforts to recover outstanding indebtedness. The agreement has already yielded significant results, with US$60 million recovered from Nestoil Limited and paid to the consortium during the course of the investigation.

The payment by Nestoil, facilitated by a team of operatives from the EFCC Lagos Zonal Directorate 2 led by the Head of Investigation, Mr. Oguzi Moses, represents a significant milestone in the Commission's commitment to promoting accountability, protecting the interests of financial institutions, and safeguarding depositors' funds.

While welcoming the payment as an encouraging development, the consortium of lenders noted that it represents only the first phase of the repayment process, as a substantial portion of the outstanding debt remains to be settled. The lenders reaffirmed their commitment to working closely with the EFCC and other relevant stakeholders to ensure the seamless continuation of the recovery process until the outstanding indebtedness is fully liquidated.

The lenders also reiterated their commitment to supporting the EFCC by providing all relevant documents required for the diligent prosecution of the investigation, while ensuring that all parties comply with the law and that the recovery process remains lawful, transparent, and commercially responsible.

The EFCC reaffirmed its resolve to pursue the investigation to its logical conclusion and to ensure the full recovery of depositors' funds in accordance with the law.

The courts recovered nothing in eight months

The $60 million landed roughly ten weeks after Nigeria's Supreme Court dissolved the machinery the lenders had built to secure exactly that money.

Justice Dehinde Dipeolu of the Federal High Court in Lagos granted an ex parte order on Oct. 22, 2025 against Nestoil, Neconde Energy and the couple who control them, Ernest and Nnenna Azudialu-Obiejesi. It barred them from accessing funds, shares or assets held across more than 20 banks and financial institutions, and authorised First Trustees Limited and FBNQuest Merchant Bank Limited, acting for the consortium, to take possession of Nestoil's assets under receivership.

The Court of Appeal added interim preservative orders in November 2025, freezing the couple's personal accounts and extending protection to the receiver-manager in the exercise of his duties.

Nestoil and Neconde appealed. On June 1, a five-member Supreme Court panel set the appellate orders aside. Justice Stephen Jonah Adah, delivering the lead judgment, held that the Court of Appeal had exceeded its jurisdiction and misused the judicial process by granting an ex parte application when the matter was not properly before it.

The ruling turned entirely on procedure. It made no finding on whether Nestoil owes the money, and the Supreme Court directed the parties back to the Federal High Court to litigate the substantive debt. The receiver-manager, whose protective order fell with the rest, had by then been operating for close to eight months under orders an appellate court had no power to make.

Nigerian and international outlets reported the judgment as a significant victory for Azudialu-Obiejesi. Peoples Gazette published a commentary headlined on the travails of Nestoil and the travesties of courts.

The lenders rejected that reading within a week.

"The decision of the Supreme Court is, at best, a pyrrhic victory for Nestoil and Neconde," the consortium said in a published statement. "The Supreme Court's decision DID NOT remove the Receiver/Manager. The decisions also did not declare that Nestoil is not owing its humongous indebtedness to the Nestoil Lenders."

They put the outstanding sum at $1,084,157,611.20 alongside 469,426,076,115.87 naira, arising under a common terms agreement, and said recovery action had only just begun.

What the sequence establishes

Eight months of litigation across three levels of the Nigerian court system produced no recovery. It produced an ex parte freeze, an appellate order later held to have been made without jurisdiction, a separate satellite dispute over which lawyers Neconde was entitled to instruct that reached the Supreme Court in its own right, and a receivership operating under orders that were subsequently voided.

A meeting convened and chaired by the head of a regulatory agency produced $60 million.

That contrast admits of two readings, and both are worth stating.

The first is a criticism of the courts. The preservative orders existed to stop assets moving while the debt was determined. The Supreme Court removed them on jurisdictional grounds without reaching the debt, and the lenders were left in June with a billion-dollar claim, no freeze and no money. What eventually moved funds was a criminal investigation and a negotiated repayment schedule, not a civil judgment.

The second cuts the other way. Nestoil paid $60 million after the freeze was lifted rather than while it was in place, which weakens the argument that the asset restrictions were the necessary mechanism. The company had contested the basis and scale of the claim throughout, and a structured plan agreed at a table achieved in weeks what adversarial proceedings had not achieved in three quarters of a year.

What is not in dispute is the timeline. The lenders first went to court in October 2025 over a debt they say exceeds a billion dollars. The first substantial recovery came in August 2026, and it came through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission rather than through any court.

Who is owed the money

The consortium is led by FBNQuest Merchant Bank Limited and First Trustees Limited, both subsidiaries of First Bank. Femi Otedola, chairman of First HoldCo, is that group's largest shareholder with about 26 percent.

Other institutions in the consortium include Citibank Nigeria Limited, Central Securities and Clearing Systems Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Globus Bank Limited, Keystone Bank Limited, OPay Limited, Polaris Bank Limited, Providus Bank Limited and Stanbic IBTC Bank Limited.

Nestoil is controlled by Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi, who founded it in 1991 after starting out in trading in 1983 under the name Obijackson. The Obijackson Group, which also includes the upstream operator Neconde Energy, employs more than 3,000 Nigerians directly. Neconde holds 45 percent of Oil Mining Lease 42, with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Exploration and Production Limited holding the remaining 55 percent.

A separate appeal remains before the Supreme Court, marked SC/CV/48B/2026, in which Neconde challenges the Court of Appeal's decision to disqualify its chosen counsel. Wole Olanipekun, leading for Neconde, argued that the appellate court acted without jurisdiction in that matter as well. The apex court reserved judgment after hearing arguments, with FBNQuest, First Trustees, Nestoil and both Azudialu-Obiejesis named as respondents.

The EFCC has made asset recovery central to its work under Olukoyede, reporting recoveries exceeding 566.32 billion naira and $411.57 million in roughly two years, alongside the forfeiture of 1,502 non-monetary assets.