The Supreme Court has set aside the acquittal of former governor of Jigawa State Sule Lamido and his two sons in a N1.35 billion corruption trial and ordered that they should go back to the Federal High Court and defend themselves from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) allegations.
A five-member panel of the apex court gave the verdict on Friday in an appeal the EFCC made against the acquittal of Lamido, his sons Mustapha and Aminu Lamido, had merit.
Justice Abubakar Sadiq Umar read the lead judgement which also set aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal, which had quashed the trial.
Lamido, his sons, Aminu Wada Abubakar, and their companies—Bamaina Holdings Limited and Speeds International Limited—re facing trial before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on a 37-count amended charge, including money laundering and abuse of office.
The EFCC accused Lamido, who governed Jigawa from 2007 to 2015, of laundering ₦1.35 billion in kickbacks from contractors handling state government projects.
Following EFCC completion of the case, all the defendants filed a no case submission on the ground that no prima facie case was established against them.
The trial court had dismissed the no case submission and held that the EFCC gave sufficient evidence that required them to enter defence.
But Lamido approached the Court of Appeal which in July 2023 set aside the Federal High Court ruling and dismissed the charges against the defendants.
The EFCC rejected the appellate court ruling and went to the apex court, asking it to uphold the ruling of the Federal High Court and remit the matter to the court for continuation of trial.
The commission faulted the Court of Appeal for discharging the defendants despite the avalanches of evidence establishing a prima facie case against the former governor and his sons.
