The Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of Aminu Sule Lamido, the son of former Jigawa State governor Sule Lamido, over his failure to properly declare foreign currency while travelling out of Nigeria.
In a unanimous decision delivered on Friday, January 16, 2026, a five-man panel of the apex court dismissed Lamido’s appeal, affirming the judgments earlier handed down by the Federal High Court in Kano and the Court of Appeal in Kaduna. The court ruled that the appeal lacked substance and found no reason to interfere with the conclusions reached by the two lower courts.
Lamido was arrested on December 11, 2012, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as he prepared to board a flight to Cairo, Egypt. Investigations revealed that although he declared $10,000 to officials of the Nigeria Customs Service, he was found to be carrying an additional $40,000 that was not disclosed, contrary to statutory requirements.
He was subsequently charged before the Federal High Court on a one-count charge of false declaration of foreign currency under the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act. In its judgment delivered on July 12, 2015, the trial court found him guilty and ordered the forfeiture of 25 per cent of the undeclared amount to the Federal Government.
Lamido challenged the conviction at the Court of Appeal in Kaduna, arguing that the trial court erred in law and fact. However, the appellate court, in a judgment delivered on December 7, 2015, dismissed the appeal and upheld both the conviction and the forfeiture order.
Still dissatisfied, he approached the Supreme Court, urging it to overturn the decisions of the lower courts. The apex court, however, held that the evidence against him was properly evaluated and that the relevant laws were correctly applied.
By dismissing the appeal and affirming the earlier judgments, the Supreme Court has brought the protracted legal dispute, which began more than a decade ago, to a final close.
