The Supreme Court on Friday, January 16, 2026, dismissed an appeal filed by Aminu Sule Lamido, son of former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, and upheld his conviction for failing to declare foreign currency at an airport.
Aminu was arrested on December 11, 2012 by th Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano while he was preparing to board a flight to Cairo, Egypt.
He was later found guilty of falsely declaring the amount of money he carried while travelling out of Nigeria.
Investigations by the EFCC showed that Aminu Sule Lamido declared $10,000 to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), but was later discovered to be in possession of an additional $40,000 that was not included on his currency declaration form.
Following the development, the EFCC charged him before the Federal High Court in Kano on a one-count charge of false declaration of foreign currency, contrary to the provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.
The court on July 12, 2015, convicted Aminu Sule Lamido and ordered the forfeiture of 25 per cent of the undeclared sum to the federal government.
But, dissatisfied with the judgement of the Federal High Court, Aminu file an appeal at the Court of Appeal in Kaduna, which sought to overturn both the conviction and the forfeiture order.
However, the Court of Appeal on December 7, 2015, dismissed the appeal and upheld the decision of the trial court, a development that made Aminu to approach the Supreme Court, urging it to set aside the judgements of the trial court and the Court of Appeal and quash his conviction.
But, in a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and affirmed the rulings of both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal.
