Court Jails Driver, 2 Others For Drug Trafficking

Justice Kehinde Ogundare of the Federal High Court, Lagos, has convicted and sentenced a 45-year-old driver, Tapha Mustapha and two other persons to two years imprisonment for trafficking in hard drugs.
Mustapha was arraigned before the court alongside Andrew Ukelere and Anthony Chiemerem.

The convicts were arraigned before the court by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on April 27 on charges bordering on conspiracy, trafficking in 13.9 kilogrammes of tramadol and 590 litres of Pentazocine, a psychotropic drug similar to Cocaine.

During their arraignment, the prosecutor, Mariam Erondu, informed the court that the convicts were arrested with the prohibited drugs on March 19, 2024, on the Long Bridge axis of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Lagos, Lagos State.

The prosecutor maintained that the offences committed by the three convicts contravened sections 11(b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N 30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, and were punishable under the same Act.

They, however, pleaded guilty to the charges.

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Justice Ogundare, who had adjourned the matter to Thursday for a review of facts and sentence, had also ordered the convicts to be remanded at the Ikoyi-Lagos Center of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS).

At the resumed hearing matter on Thursday, the judge ordered the prosecutor, Erondu, to review the facts.

The prosecutor then called Benjamin Naetah, a senior exhibits keeper with the agency, who tendered the drugs and other exhibits, which the court admitted.

Upon conclusion of the review of facts, Erondu urged the court to convict the defendants by the law under which they were charged.

But the defence lawyers, Chief Lilian Omotunde in her allucutor, urged the court to impose a non-custodial sentence on her clients, being a first-time offender and for not wasting the time of the court.

Also, counsel to the third convict, Ogunleye, equally urged the court to award a non-custodial sentence to her client.

In his judgment, Justice Ogundare sentenced the first and second convicts to two years imprisonment, while the third convict was sentenced to a year imprisonment.

The judge, however, ordered both the first and second convicts to pay the sum of N500,000 each and the third convict to pay the sum of N100,000 instead of the jail term.