Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of Aminu Sule Lamido, son of former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, over his failure to declare $40,000 at an airport.
Gatekeepers News reports that in a unanimous decision delivered on Friday, the apex court dismissed Aminu’s appeal and affirmed the judgments of the federal high court and the court of appeal, which had earlier found him guilty of false declaration of foreign currency.
Aminu was arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on December 11, 2012, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport while attempting to travel to Cairo, Egypt.
Prosecutors told the court that he declared $10,000 to the Nigeria Customs Service but was later discovered to have an additional $40,000 that was not disclosed.
He was subsequently charged before the federal high court in Kano on a single count under the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act. On July 12, 2015, the court convicted him and ordered the forfeiture of 25 percent of the undeclared amount to the federal government.
Aminu challenged the ruling at the court of appeal in Kaduna, but his appeal was dismissed, with the court affirming the trial court’s decision. Still dissatisfied, he approached the Supreme Court, which has now brought the case to an end by upholding his conviction.
