The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Friday 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.

The former governor’s son, Aminu was found guilty of falsely declaring the amount of money he carried with him  while travelling out of Nigeria.

He was arrested on December 11, 2012, by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Cairo, Egypt.

It was discovered during Investigations that while  Aminu declared $10,000 to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) as the cash on him, he later discovered to be in possession of an additional $40,000 that was not included on his currency declaration form.

The EFCC subsequently 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.

On July 12, 2015, the trial court convicted Aminu and ordered the forfeiture of 25 per cent of the undeclared sum to the federal government.

Dissatisfied with the judgement, he appealed to the Court of Appeal in Kaduna, seeking to overturn both the conviction and the forfeiture order.

However, on December 7, 2015, the appellate court dismissed the appeal and upheld the decision of the trial court.

Aminu then approached the Supreme Court, urging it to set aside the judgements of the lower courts and quash his conviction.

In a unanimous decision delivered on Friday, the apex court dismissed the appeal and affirmed the rulings of both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal.