The Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of Aminu Sule Lamido, son of former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, for failing to declare $40,000 at an international airport.
In a unanimous judgment delivered on Friday, the apex court dismissed Aminu’s appeal, describing it as lacking merit, and affirmed the decisions of the lower courts.
Aminu was arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on December 11, 2012, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport while attempting to travel to Cairo, Egypt.
According to the prosecution, he declared $10,000 to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) but was found to be in possession of an additional $40,000, which was not disclosed on his currency declaration form.
The EFCC subsequently charged him before the Federal High Court in Kano on a one-count charge of false declaration of foreign currency, contrary to the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.
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On July 12, 2015, the trial court convicted Aminu and ordered the forfeiture of 25 per cent of the undeclared sum to the Federal Government.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Aminu appealed to the Court of Appeal in Kaduna, which dismissed his case on December 7, 2015, prompting a further appeal to the Supreme Court.
In a related development, the Supreme Court has ordered the continuation of the trial of former Governor Sule Lamido, his two sons, and others over alleged ₦1.35 billion fraud.
A five-member panel of the apex court upheld the decision of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which dismissed the no-case submission filed by the defendants and ruled that they had a case to answer.
The court set aside the July 25, 2023, judgments of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which had earlier struck out the 37-count charge on jurisdictional grounds.
In the lead judgment, Justice Abubakar Umar reinstated the earlier ruling of Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, directing the defendants to enter their defence.
The EFCC alleges that Sule Lamido abused his office as governor between 2007 and 2015, laundering funds received as kickbacks from companies awarded contracts by the Jigawa State Government.
Those charged alongside Lamido include his sons Aminu and Mustapha, Aminu Wada Abubakar, and two companies, Bamaina Holdings Ltd and Speeds International Ltd.