The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal filed by Aminu Sule Lamido, son of former Jigawa State governor Sule Lamido, contesting his conviction for failing to declare the full amount of foreign currency in his possession while travelling out of Nigeria.
In a unanimous ruling, the panel of justices at the apex court held that Aminu’s appeal lacked merit and upheld the earlier decisions of the lower courts.
The case arose from his arrest by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on December 11, 2012, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport as he was preparing to board a flight to Cairo, Egypt.
According to the prosecution, Aminu declared $10,000 to officials of the Nigeria Customs Service but was later found to be carrying an additional $40,000 that was not reflected 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, an offence under the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.
On July 12, 2015, the trial court found Aminu guilty and ordered him to forfeit 25 percent of the undeclared amount to the Federal Government. Unhappy with the outcome, he approached the Court of Appeal in Kaduna, seeking to overturn the conviction and nullify the forfeiture order.
However, in a judgment delivered on December 7, 2015, the appellate court dismissed his appeal, a decision that has now been affirmed by the Supreme Court.
In a related development, the apex court has also directed that the trial of former governor Sule Lamido, his two sons, and other co-defendants over alleged ₦1.35 billion fraud should resume before the Federal High Court in Abuja. A five-member panel issued the directive in two unanimous judgments delivered in appeals filed by the EFCC.
The Supreme Court agreed with the trial court that the defendants had a case to answer and upheld the dismissal of the no-case submissions earlier filed by Lamido and others.
The appeals challenged the July 25, 2023 judgments of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which had upheld the no-case submissions and struck out the 37-count charge on the basis that the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction.
In the lead judgments, Justice Abubakar Umar overturned the decisions of the Court of Appeal and reinstated the ruling of Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which had ordered the defendants to open their defence.
The EFCC alleges that Lamido abused his office as governor between 2007 and 2015 by laundering funds received as kickbacks from companies awarded contracts by the Jigawa State Government.
Those standing trial alongside him include his sons Aminu and Mustapha, Aminu Wada Abubakar, and their companies, Bamaina Holdings Limited and Speeds International Limited.
What you should know
The Supreme Court’s decision closes the legal chapter on Aminu Sule Lamido’s conviction over undeclared foreign currency, reinforcing Nigeria’s anti-money laundering laws.
More significantly, the ruling clears the way for the continuation of a high-profile corruption trial involving former governor Sule Lamido and his associates.
By overturning the Court of Appeal’s jurisdictional ruling, the apex court reaffirmed the authority of the Federal High Court to hear the case, signalling a tougher judicial stance on prolonged legal delays in corruption prosecutions.
