Court jails traveller, orders forfeiture of undisclosed $49,000

Justice Dehinde Dipeolu of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has convicted and sentenced a businessman, Duru Ikechukwu Damian, to three months’ imprisonment for failing to declare the sum of $49,000 to the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja.

Damian’s conviction followed his guilty plea to a one-count charge brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

During the review of facts, EFCC counsel Deborah Adamu-Eteh led the commission’s investigating officer, Muhammad Adamu Timta, who narrated how the defendant was intercepted by customs officials and subsequently handed over to the EFCC.

“We discovered that the sum of $49,000 was found on the defendant without declaration at MMIA, Ikeja, on August 11, 2025, during inwards clearance to the United States of America,” Timta told the court.

The prosecution tendered the recovered cash, which was admitted in evidence without objection.

In his judgment, Justice Dipeolu sentenced Damian to three months’ imprisonment and ordered the forfeiture of the entire $49,000 to the Federal Government.

The charge against him reads: “That you, Duru Ikechukwu Damian, on the 11th day of August, 2025, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, failed to make a declaration of the sum of $49,000 (Forty-Nine Thousand United States Dollars) to the Nigerian Customs Service at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 3(5) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.”

Guardian