Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Federal High Court in Lagos has sentenced Stanley Nwora, who recently returned to Nigeria from the United States (US) to two years imprisonment for unlawful importation and possession of Indian hemp.
Nwora had pleaded guilty to the two-count charge brought by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on June 18, but the prosecution could not review the facts of the case due to the absence of the exhibit’s keeper.
Consequently, Justice Aluko adjourned the matter to yesterday for the review of the facts and other elements of the case.
While reviewing the facts, the prosecutor, Umar Hussain, told the court that the convict, a resident of 6, Moses Ebitu, SPG Road Ologolo, Lekki, Lagos, was arrested with 543 grams of Cannabis Sativa, popularly called marijuana, on May 17, 2023.
He told the court that the offence contravened sections 11(a) and 19 of the NDLEA Act Cap. N30 Laws of the Federation, 2004 (as Amended).
The prosecutor also called a witness, Moses Dogo, an operative of the NDLEA, who tendered all exhibits in the matter.
After the court admitted the exhibits, the prosecutor urged the court to sentence the convict in accordance with the sections of the NDLEA Act under which he was charged.
But the convict’s counsel, Chief Benson Ndakara, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy by considering that his client is a first-time offender without any previous record of conviction.
Ndakara also told the court that his client was a victim of circumstances that was deceived by friends, who gave him a parcel that he did not know its content.
After listening to arguments of counsel, Justice Aluko sentenced the convict to one year on each of the counts, but stating that the sentence shall run concurrently.
The judge, however, gave the convict an option of a N300,000 fine instead of jail.
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