Supreme court fixes Friday to decide Sule Lamido’s son’s appeal in $40,000 money laundering case

Aminu Lamido

The supreme court is set to deliver judgement 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 judgement 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 judgements 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).