The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal filed by Aminu Sule Lamido, son of former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, challenging the forfeiture of $40,000 to the Federal Government over the false declaration of foreign currency.
A five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Inyang Okoro, delivered the judgment on Friday, holding that the appeal lacked merit and affirming the decisions of the lower courts.
In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Adamu Jauro and read by Justice Abubakar Sadiq Umar, the court described the appeal as “doomed to fail” and upheld the forfeiture of the funds in full.
The case stemmed from an incident on December 11, 2012, when Aminu Lamido was arrested at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport while preparing to board a flight to Cairo, Egypt. During routine clearance, he declared $10,000 to the Nigeria Customs Service, in compliance with statutory requirements. However, a subsequent search revealed that he was carrying a total of $50,000 in cash, leaving $40,000 undeclared.
The failure to declare the excess amount contravened the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act and related regulations governing the cross-border movement of cash. Under Nigerian law, travellers are required to declare any sum exceeding $10,000 when entering or leaving the country.
Following his arrest, Aminu Lamido was arraigned on February 4, 2013, before the Federal High Court in Kano on a one-count charge of false declaration of foreign currency. After evaluating the evidence presented by both sides, the trial court, on July 12, 2015, convicted him and ordered the forfeiture of 25 per cent of the undeclared amount—$10,000—to the Federal Government.
Dissatisfied with the verdict, Lamido appealed to the Court of Appeal in Kaduna. On December 7, 2015, the appellate court dismissed the appeal, affirming both the conviction and the forfeiture order.
He subsequently approached the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the concurrent findings of the two lower courts. At the final hearing, counsel for both parties adopted their written briefs, after which the apex court reserved judgment.
In its ruling on Friday, the Supreme Court held that the lower courts had properly evaluated the evidence and correctly applied the law. The court found no basis to interfere with their decisions and accordingly dismissed the appeal in its entirety.
The judgment brings the protracted legal dispute to an end, leaving the conviction and forfeiture order intact. It also reinforces the judiciary’s stance on strict enforcement of currency declaration laws, which form a key part of Nigeria’s anti-money laundering and financial transparency regime.
The Lamido family remains a prominent political force in Jigawa State and the wider North-West region. Sule Lamido, Aminu’s father, served as governor of Jigawa State from 2007 to 2015 and was Minister of Foreign Affairs during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He has faced separate corruption charges in recent years, which he has consistently denied.
