BREAKING: Supreme Court Affirms Conviction of Lamido’s Son Over Undeclared $40,000
ABUJA, Nigeria — The Supreme Court of Nigeria has upheld the conviction of Aminu Sule Lamido, son of former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, dismissing his appeal and affirming the forfeiture of $40,000 to the Federal Government over his failure to declare the funds at an airport.
A five-member panel of the apex court on Friday unanimously ruled that Aminu’s appeal lacked merit, thereby confirming the earlier decisions of the Federal High Court, Kano and the Court of Appeal, Kaduna that found him guilty of false declaration of foreign currency.
The judgment, authored by Justice Adamu Jauro and read by Justice Abubakar Umar, stated that the appeal did not present any substantial reason to overturn the concurrent findings of lower courts. The apex court also maintained the earlier order that 25 per cent of the undeclared $40,000 be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Aminu was originally arrested on December 11, 2012, by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport while preparing to travel to Cairo, Egypt. According to the prosecution, he declared only $10,000 to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) — the legal limit — but was found in possession of an additional $40,000 that he failed to declare on the required form.
He was arraigned on a one-count charge of false declaration of foreign currency under the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act. The Federal High Court convicted him on July 12, 2015, ordering forfeiture of a portion of the undeclared funds to the government. The Court of Appeal later affirmed that conviction, prompting Aminu to take his case to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court’s ruling brings a decade-long legal battle to an end on the currency declaration matter, and comes amid separate actions by the EFCC — including a ruling to continue the trial of former Governor Sule Lamido and his sons in an alleged ₦1.35 billion fraud case.
The EFCC prosecuted the case across all levels of the judiciary, while Aminu was represented by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) during his appeal.
