The Supreme Court is set to deliver judgment on Friday in the appeal filed by Aminu Sule Lamido, son of Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa, over his conviction for failing to declare $40,000 at an airport.
Aminu is challenging the rulings of the federal high court
and the court of appeal, which found him guilty of false declaration of foreign
currency and ordered the forfeiture of part of the undeclared money.
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) arrested Aminu on December 11, 2012, at the Mallam Aminu Kano
International Airport while preparing to travel to Cairo, Egypt.
The prosecution said Aminu declared $10,000 to the Nigeria
Customs Service (NCS) but was found with an additional $40,000, which was not
disclosed on his currency declaration form.
The EFCC 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.
The EFCC maintained its prosecution of the case through all
stages of the proceedings, while Aminu was represented by a senior advocate of
Nigeria (SAN).
At the last hearing before the supreme court, lawyers for
both parties adopted their written briefs of argument, after which the apex
court reserved judgement and fixed Friday, January 16, 2026, to deliver its
decision on the appeal.
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