The Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of Aminu Sule Lamido, son of Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa State, over the non-declaration of $40,000 at an international airport.
The Apex Court dismissed an appeal filed by Aminu Sule Lamido, which sought to overturn his conviction by the trial court for breaching currency declaration regulations.
The case arose from his arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on December 11, 2012, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport while he was attempting to board a flight to Cairo, Egypt.
The prosecution stated that Aminu declared $10,000 to the Nigeria Customs Service but was later found in possession of an additional $40,000 that was not disclosed on his currency declaration form.
The EFCC subsequently charged him before the Federal High Court in Kano on a single count of false declaration of foreign currency under the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.
In a judgement delivered on July 12, 2015, the Federal High Court found Aminu guilty and ordered the forfeiture of 25 per cent of the undeclared amount to the federal government.
Dissatisfied with the outcome, Aminu challenged the conviction and forfeiture order before the Court Of Appeal in Kaduna.
The Appellate Court, in its judgement of December 7, 2015, dismissed the appeal and affirmed the findings of the trial court after resolving all issues against him.
Aminu later approached the Supreme Court, urging it to set aside the decisions of the two lower courts and quash his conviction.
In a unanimous decision delivered on Friday, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal and affirmed the judgements of both the trial court and the Court Of Appeal.