…judge orders payment of N600,000, in lieu of the jail-term
A driver, Mukaila Idowu, was arraigned, convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment on Tuesday, by a Lagos Federal High Court, for trafficking in 88.3 kilograms of Cannabis Sativa popularly called marijuana.
The presiding judge, Justice Akintayo Aluko, convicted the 50-year-old driver, after he pleaded not guilty to one count charge of unlawful trafficking in 88.3 Kilogrames of the banned weeds made against him by the prosecutor, N. J. Mamza.
The prosecutor, Mamza, had told the court that the convict was arrested with the prohibited weed, on May 30, 2023, on Otedola Bridge, Lagos-lbadan Expressway, Lagos.
She told the court that the convict concealed the drug in his Toyota Sienna car.
She also told the court that the offence committed by the convict contravened Section 11 (b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N 30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and punishable under the same Act.
The convict admitted committing the offence and pleaded guilty to the charge proferred against him.
Following his guilty plea, the prosecutor, Mamza, urged the court to convict and sentence him in accordance with the section of the NDLEA Act he was charged with.
But counsel to the convict, Barrister Oreofe Ogunleye, in her allocutor, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy in sentencing her client, on the ground that her client was a first time convict.
The lawyer, urged the court to consider the timely plea of guilty to the charge by her client, as a sign of remorse and that her client has vowed not to involve in crime.
Oreofe particularly told the court that her client was deceived by the owner of the ‘goods’, who hired her client to convey the consignment.
She further urged the court to grant her client a non-custodian sentence or and option of fine in lieu of custodian sentence.
Justice Aluko after taken arguments from counsel, sentenced the convict to three years imprisonment.
The judge however ordered the convict to pay the sum of N600, 000, in lieu of the jail-term. In addition to the fine option, the judge ordered the convict to perform 100 hour community service, at Eti-Osa Local Government of Lagos State.
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