EFCC Arrests Gov. Sule Lamido’s Sons Over N10 Billion Money Laundering Fraud

Aminu Lamido and Mustapha Lamido, sons of
Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido were
arrested yesterday, November 14, 2013 by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
EFCC. Dependable sources say they were picked
up by operatives of the Commission between 10
and 11.55pm in Kano and have been moved to
Abuja, the Commission's headquarters, where a
crack team of investigators will grill them.
Their arrest, according to a knowledgeable source,
is in furtherance of the investigation that
commenced in December 2012 when Aminu Sule
Lamido was arrested at the Mallam Aminu Kano
Airport en route Cairo, Egypt for failure to declare
the $50,000 he had on him.
Though Aminu has since been prosecuted and
convicted by a Federal High Court in Kano,
investigation as to how he came by the money
has led investigations to uncover a web of money
laundering in which billions of naira from Jigawa
state government accounts are funnelled into the
accounts of companies run by the Jigawa state
governor and his two sons.
Over N10billion is said to have been transferred
from Jigawa state government accounts into the
accounts in which Sule Lamido and his two sons
have interest from 2007 till date.
The Commission is said to have traced these
transfers to 10 companies where Lamido and sons
are directors and signatories to the account.
The companies include Bamaina Alluminium
Limited, Bamaina Holdings Limited, Bamaina
Company Nigeria Limited, Rawda Integrated
Services Limited, Speeds International Limited
and Saby Integrated Nigeria Limited.
The account of these companies received huge
cash inflow between 2007 and 2013, a period that
coincide with the tenure of Sule Lamido as
governor of Jigawa state. For instance in Bamaina
Aluminium where Sule Lamido and his two sons
are directors, investigations revealed that the
company's account controlled by Mustapha as
signatory received total credit of N1.52billion
between January 2010 and August 2013. It
recorded a total debit of the same amount, with
Mustapha and other companies in which Lamido
and his sons are directors, being the beneficiaries.
In the same vein, Bamaina Holdings Limited's
account with the governor as sole signatory
received a total of N1.19billion between February
2007 and July 2013. About N1billion was paid
from this account into accounts of companies
controlled by the governor and his sons.
Massive lodgements were also discovered in the
account of Bamaina Company Nigeria limited
controlled by Mustapha as sole signatory from
Bamaina Alluminium. Between January 2010 and
July 2013, the account received over N500million.
From the account of Rawda Integrated Services
Limited controlled by Mustapha, there have also
been massive movement of funds to another
company run by Sule Lamido, Speeds
International Limited. Speeds' account recorded a
turnover ofN2.2billion between January 2007 and
February 2010.
In the account of Rawda with a new generation
bank investigators discovered the movement of
N2.6billion to an unknown signatory. That account
recorded over one hundred withdrawals running
to over N600milion in cash between November
2007 and April 2008
Saby Integrated Services Nigeria Limited, another
company owned by Lamido received over
N730million from several Jigawa State
government agencies between June 2010 and
August 2010. Sahara reporters