BREAKING: Supreme Court upholds conviction of Sule Lamido’s son

The supreme court has thrown out an appeal filed by Aminu Sule Lamido, son of Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa state, thereby affirming his conviction for failing to declare foreign currency at an airport.

Aminu had challenged the ruling of the trial court, which found him guilty of not declaring $40,000 while travelling out of the country.

He was arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on December 11, 2012, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, as he attempted to board a flight to Cairo, Egypt.

According to the prosecution, Aminu declared $10,000 to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) but was discovered to be carrying an additional $40,000 that was not listed on his currency declaration form.

The EFCC subsequently charged him before the federal high court in Kano on a one-count charge of false declaration of foreign currency, in violation of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.

On July 12, 2015, the federal high court convicted Aminu and ordered the forfeiture of 25 percent of the undeclared amount to the federal government.

Unhappy with the judgment, he appealed to the court of appeal in Kaduna, seeking to overturn both the conviction and the forfeiture order.

However, in a ruling delivered on December 7, 2015, the appellate court dismissed the appeal and upheld the trial court’s decision, resolving all the issues raised against him.

Still dissatisfied, Aminu approached the supreme court, asking it to set aside the judgments of the lower courts and quash his conviction.

In a unanimous judgment delivered on Friday, the apex court dismissed the appeal and affirmed the decisions of both the trial court and the court of appeal.