Aminu Lamido knows fate in alleged $40,000 fraud suit today

The Supreme Court will, today, deliver its judgment in the appeal filed by Aminu Sule Lamido, the 34-year-old son of the former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, following his conviction on undeclared $40,000 cash at the airport and false declaration of foreign currency charge brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Operatives of the anti-graft agency had on December 11, 2012, arrested Aminu at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport on his way to Egypt for failing to declare $40,000 in cash on the Customs Currency Declaration Form after initially declaring the statutory $10,000 to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

Aminu, a 2010 graduate of Mass Communication from the Bayero University Kano, was subsequently arraigned by the EFCC on February 4, 2013, on one count charge of false declaration of foreign currency under the Money Laundering Act.

The commission subsequently arraigned him before the Federal High Court in Kano, where he was convicted on July 12, 2015, and ordered to forfeit 25 per cent of the undeclared foreign currency to the Federal Government.

Dissatisfied with the judgment of the trial court, Aminu filed an appeal before the Court of Appeal, in Kaduna, asking the appellate court to set aside the ruling.

But the appellate court in its judgment delivered on Monday, December 7, 2015, and read by Justice Habeeb Abiru, dismissed the appeal and upheld the decision of the lower court while resolving all the issues raised against the appellant.

Further dissatisfied, Aminu approached the Supreme Court, seeking a reversal of his conviction and the nullification of the judgments of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal.

The lead prosecuting EFCC lawyer, DCE Sa’ad Hanafi, now Acting Zonal Director of Benin Directorate of the commission, handled the case all through from the Federal High Court, Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court, while Chief O. E. B. Offiong (SAN) represented Aminu during the proceedings.

At the last adjourned date of the matter before the Supreme Court, parties adopted their briefs while the apex court reserved its judgment and consequently fixed January 16, 2026, for its judgment on the appeal.