The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the appeal filed by Aminu Sule Lamido, son of former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, and affirmed the judgments of the lower courts convicting him over the non-declaration of foreign currency.

In a unanimous judgment presided over by Justice Adamu Jauro but delivered by Justice Abubakar Sadiq Umar, the apex court upheld the decisions of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, which found Aminu guilty of false declaration and failure to declare the sum of $40,000 to the Nigeria Customs Service.

Aminu, 34 at the time of filing the appeal, was arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on December 11, 2012, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, while attempting to travel to Egypt. He was accused of declaring only the statutory $10,000 on the Customs Currency Declaration Form despite being in possession of $40,000.

He was subsequently arraigned before the Federal High Court in Kano, which on July 12, 2015, convicted him and ordered the forfeiture of 25 per cent of the undeclared foreign currency to the Federal Government.

Dissatisfied with the verdict, Aminu approached the Court of Appeal, Kaduna Division, seeking to overturn the judgment. However, in a judgment delivered on December 7, 2015, and read by Justice Habeeb Abiru, the appellate court dismissed the appeal and affirmed the decision of the trial court.

Still aggrieved, Aminu proceeded to the Supreme Court, urging it to set aside his conviction and nullify the judgments of both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal. The apex court, however, found no merit in the appeal and affirmed the concurrent findings of the two lower courts.

The case was prosecuted throughout by the EFCC’s lead counsel, Deputy Commander Sa’ad Hanafi Sa’ad, now Acting Zonal Director of the Commission’s Benin Zonal Directorate. Aminu was represented by Chief O. E. B. Offiong (SAN).

In a related development, the Supreme Court on Friday also ordered the continuation of the trial of former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido and his two sons, Mustapha and Aminu Lamido, in the ₦1.35 billion corruption charges brought against them by the EFCC.

The judgment of the Court of Appeal, which in July 2023 set the former governor free, was voided and set aside by the apex court. Justice Abubakar Sadiq Umar, in a unanimous decision of a five-man panel, held that the appeal by EFCC against the Court of Appeal verdict was meritorious and sustained.

Consequently, the Supreme Court ordered that Lamido and his sons return to the Federal High Court to defend themselves against the EFCC allegations.

Lamido, his sons Aminu and Mustapha, and their companies—Bamaina Holdings Limited and Speeds International Limited—were arraigned before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on a 37-count amended charge, including money laundering and abuse of office.

The EFCC alleged that Lamido, who governed Jigawa from 2007 to 2015, laundered ₦1.35 billion in kickbacks from contractors handling state government projects.

At the conclusion of the EFCC case, Lamido and other defendants filed a no-case submission, arguing that no prima facie case was established against them. The Federal High Court dismissed the submission, holding that sufficient evidence had been supplied by EFCC requiring the defendants to enter their defense.

The former governor appealed to the Court of Appeal, which in July 2023 disagreed with the Federal High Court and dismissed the charges. Unsatisfied, the EFCC filed an appeal at the Supreme Court, seeking to uphold the Federal High Court ruling and remit the matter for continuation of trial.

EFCC argued that the Court of Appeal erred in law by discharging the defendants despite the overwhelming evidence establishing a prima facie case against the former governor and his sons.

The Supreme Court, in Friday’s judgment, ordered that the charges against the Lamidos be resuscitated, allowing them to enter their defense in the corruption case.