The
Court of Appeal sitting in Kaduna on Monday, December 7 dismissed the
appeal of Aminu Sule Lamido, the 34 year old son of former Jigawa State
governor, Alhaji
Sule
Lamido, against the decision of the Federal High Court, Kano which
found him guilty of the charge of money laundering brought against him
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Aminu
Sule Lamido was arrested on the 11th of December 2012 by operatives of
the EFCC, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport on his way to
Egypt for failure to declare the sum of $40,000 in the Customs Currency
Declaration Form after initially declaring the statutory $10,000 to the
Nigeria Custom Service.
Aminu,
a 2010 graduate of Mass a Communication from the Bayero University
Kano, was subsequently arraigned on February 4, 2013, on one count
charge of false declaration of foreign currency.
The
charge reads: “That you, Aminu Sule Lamido, on or about 11th day of
December, 2012 at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano
within the Jurisdiction of the Federal High Court while transporting in
cash, the sum of $50,000 (fifty thousand dollars only) from Nigeria to
Cairo, Egypt, falsely declare to the Nigeria Customs Service the sum of
$10,000 (Ten Thousand dollars only) instead of the said sum of
$50,000(fifty thousand dollars only) as required under Section 12 of
the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act Cap
F34 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and Section 2(3) of the Money
Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 and thereby committed an offence
punishable under section 2(5) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act
2011”.
Aminu
was tried and consequently convicted on July 12, 2015 by a Federal High
Court sitting in Kano and ordered to forfeit 25 percent of the
undeclared sum.
Dissatisfied
with the judgment of the trial court, Aminu filed an appeal at the
Court of Appeal, Kaduna Division, praying the Appellate court to set
aside the judgment of the lower court.
The
Appellate court in its judgment delivered by Justice H.A.O Abiru upheld
the decision of the lower court and resolved all issues raised against
the appellant.
Wilson Uwujaren
Head, Media & Publicity
7th December, 2015
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