A Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday convicted and sentenced four men, Godswill Zevor; Phillip Erugbe; Agbeko Dumuda and Monday Kponeba, to 20 years imprisonment for importing 1,120 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa.
Justice Musa Kakaki handed down the jail term after the convicts pleaded guilty to the offences of unlawful importation and transportation of the banned weed, brought against them by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
Earlier, the NDLEA prosecution counsel, Paul Awogbuyi, told the court that the convicts were arrested on August 25, 2024, at the sea, along the Oniru Beach area of Lekki, Lagos State.
He said the convicts imported 1,120 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa, a narcotic drug similar to cocaine, heroin and LSD.
According to Awogbuyi, the offences committed contravened Sections 11(a) and 11(b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004 and are punishable under the same Act.
The convicts who are foreign nationals, pleaded guilty to the charges against them.
Following their guilty plea, the prosecutor reviewed the facts of the case and tendered some exhibits which included the bulk of the prohibited weed concealed in two jumbo sacks, their confessional statements among others.
Awogbuyi, while citing some authorites, urged the court to convict and sentence them in relation to the sections of the NDLEA Act they were charged with.
But the convicts’ lawyer, G. U. Okaka, did not oppose the admissibility of the exhibits tendered before the court.
He however pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing his clients, based on their earlier guilty plea.
Okaka also pleaded with the court to consider that the convicts were first-time offenders, who did not have any previous record of conviction.
He urged the court to give his clients a fine option in lieu of the custodian sentence.
Justice Kakaki in his judgment after listening to the counsel’s submissions held that: “I have discovered that payment of fine has not deterred people going into the illicit trade of drugs.
“I have also considered the quantity of the drug -1,120 kilograms- and the damage caused to society by the effect of the drug, as well as, the statements of the convicts to the effect that they involved themselves to get paid for the job.
“Consequently, each of the convicts is hereby sentenced to five years imprisonment on each count which is to run concurrently.”
