S’court Affirms Conviction Of Lamido’s Son Over Undeclared $40,000
The supreme court has dismissed an appeal filed by Aminu Sule Lamido, son of Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa state. The appeal had challenged the decision of the trial court, which convicted him for failing to declare $40,000 at an airport.
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested Aminu on December 11, 2012, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, as he made to board a flight to Cairo in Egypt.
The prosecution stated that Aminu declared $10,000 to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), but was found to have an additional $40,000, which was not disclosed on his currency declaration form.
The EFCC had charged him before the federal high court in Kano on a one-count offence of false declaration of foreign currency, contrary to provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act. On July 12, 2015, the federal high court convicted Aminu and ordered him to forfeit 25 percent of the undeclared sum to the federal government.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, he approached the court of appeal in Kaduna to overturn the conviction and set aside the forfeiture order.
However, in a judgment delivered on December 7, 2015, the court of appeal dismissed Aminu’s appeal and upheld the decision of the trial court, resolving all the issues raised against him. Still aggrieved, Aminu approached the supreme court, seeking to nullify the judgments of the lower courts and quash his conviction.
However, in a unanimous judgment on Friday, the apex court panel dismissed the appeal and affirmed the verdict of the two lower courts.
