Supreme Court upholds Sule Lamido’s son conviction over undeclared $40,000

The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal filed by Aminu Sule Lamido, son of former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, and upheld his conviction for failing to declare foreign currency at an airport.

Aminu was found guilty of falsely declaring the amount of money he carried while travelling out of Nigeria.

He was arrested on December 11, 2012, by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Cairo, Egypt.

Investigations showed that Aminu declared $10,000 to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) but was later discovered to be in possession of an additional $40,000 that was not included 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 provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.

On July 12, 2015, the trial court convicted Aminu and ordered the forfeiture of 25 percent of the undeclared sum to the federal government.

Dissatisfied with the judgment, he appealed to the Court of Appeal in Kaduna, seeking to overturn both the conviction and the forfeiture order.

However, on December 7, 2015, the appellate court dismissed the appeal and upheld the decision of the trial court.

Aminu then approached the Supreme Court, urging it to set aside the judgments of the lower courts and quash his conviction.

In a unanimous decision delivered on Friday, the apex court dismissed the appeal and affirmed the rulings of both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal.