Aminu Sule Lamido, son of a former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, on Friday lost his appeal at the Supreme Court, seeking to set aside the concurrent judgments which ordered the forfeiture of his $40,000 to the Federal Government.
A five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice John
Inyang Okoro dismissed the appeal for lacking merit.
The appeal was in respect of a judgment convicting Aminu for
failing to declare the said funds at the Kano airport while traveling to Egypt
in 2024.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had
arraigned Aminu on a one-count charge bordering on failure and false
declaration of foreign currency.
He was arrested on December 11, 2012, by the EFCC at Mallam
Aminu Kano International Airport, on his way to Egypt, over alleged failure to
declare the sum of $40,000 cash in the Customs Currency Declaration Form after
initially declaring the statutory $10,000 cash to the Nigeria Customs Service,
NCS.
He was subsequently arraigned before the Federal High Court
in Kano while the court convicted him on July 12, 2015 and ordered him to
forfeit 25 percent of the undeclared foreign currency to the Federal
Government.
Dissatisfied, Aminu approached the Court of Appeal in
Kaduna, praying for an order setting aside the judgment of the lower court.
But the appellate court in its judgment delivered on Monday,
December 7, 2015, and read by a Justice Habeeb Abiru, dismissed the appeal and
upheld the decision of the lower court while resolving all the issues raised
against Aminu (the appellant).
Further dissatisfied, Aminu approached the Supreme Court for
an order setting aside his conviction and nullifying the judgments of the
Federal High Court and that of the Court of Appeal.
However, the apex court in a unanimous judgment delivered by
Justice Adamu Jauro, as read by Justice Abubakar Umar, held that “the appeal
was doomed to fail” and subsequently dismissed it.
The apex court subsequently affirmed the concurrent
judgments of the two lower courts.
The lead prosecuting EFCC lawyer, DCE Sa’ad Hanafi, now
Acting Zonal Director of Benin Directorate of the Commission, handled the case
all through from the Federal High Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court
while Chief O E B Offiong, SAN, represented Aminu during the proceedings.
At the last adjourned date in the matter before the Supreme
Court, parties adopted their briefs of arguments while the apex court reserved
its judgment and consequently fixed Friday, January 16, 2026, for its judgment
on the appeal.
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