Man to pick waste for one week in Lagos over drug trafficking offence

Man to pick waste for one week in Lagos over drug trafficking offence

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, on Friday, sentenced a convict, Ugochukwu Okani, to a term of two years at the correctional service, for exporting hard drugs.

The defendant was arraigned by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), before Justice Akintayo Aluko, on a one-count charge of drug trafficking.

He pleaded guilty to the charge.

After his plea, the prosecutor, Mr Augustine Nwagu, reviewed the facts of the case before the court and also tendered several documents which were admitted as exhibits by the court.

In view of the defendant’s plea and the evidence tendered before the court, Nwagu then urged the court to convict the defendant accordingly. Justice Aluko, consequently, convicted the defendant.

In his allocutus, the defendant counsel, Dennis Warri prayed the court to be lenient in sentencing the convict.

He urged the court to consider a non custodian sentence or an option of fine in lieu of prison terms. He informed the court that the convict is remorseful and has learnt a bitter lesson.

After listening to the allocutus of the defendant, Justice Aluko sentenced him to a term of two years imprisonment for the offence.

The court, however, gave the defendant an option of fine of N300,000 including community service of refuse picking to be carried out at Eti-Osa Local Government for one week

“The convict is to pick refuse for four days in the week at two hours daily.

“The convict is also to produce a guarantor during the period of his community service.

According to the charge, the convict committed the offence on October 12, at the departure hall terminal two, of the Murtala Mohammed Airport.

The prosecution said that he exported 3.10kg of cannabis sativa which was recovered from him during the outward clearance of passengers on a Qatar Airline flight to Oman through Doha .

The offence contravenes the provisions of Section 20(2) of the NDLEA Act, Cap N30 Law of the Federation, 2004.