Justice Deinde Dipeolu of the Federal High Court in Lagos has convicted and sentenced a drug peddler, Oluwafemi Williams, to three years imprisonment for dealing in one kilogram of Cannabis Sativa, popularly called marijuana.
Justice Dipeolu jailed Williams after he pleaded guilty to the one-count charge of unlawfully dealing in the illicit drug brought against him by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The prosecutor, Nathaniel Mamza, had told the court that the convict was arrested on May 1, 2024, along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, where he was trading in the prohibited ‘weed’.
Mamza had maintained that the offence contravened section 11(c) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency ACT Cap N.30 Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2004 and is punishable under the same Act.
Based on his guilty plea, the prosecutor urged the court to sentence the convict by the section of the NDLEA act under which he was charged.
However, the defence lawyer, Bolanle Kolawole, urged the court to consider that his client did not waste the court’s time, that he is a first-time offender and that he had vowed not to engage in crime in the future.
Kolawole, therefore, urged the judge to impose an option of fine on the convict instead of a jail term.
Based on the lawyer’s plea for mercy, Justice Dipeolu sentenced the convict to three years imprisonment with an option of a N400,000 fine in place of the jail term.
