Justice Deinde Dipeolu of the Federal High Court in Lagos has convicted and sentenced a drug trafficker, Edobor Ambrose-Ali to two years imprisonment for unlawful exportation of 7.6 kilograms of tramadol.
Ambrose-Ali, an Air France passenger heading to Italy at the time of his arrest was jailed after pleading guilty to a two-count charge of exporting drugs without lawful authority brought against him by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
NDLEA’s prosecutor, Abu Ibrahim, had informed the court that the convict was arrested by operatives of the anti-narcotic agency on June 13, 2025, at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, while attempting to smuggle the prohibited drug into the country.
Ibrahim, a Commander of Narcotics, informed the court that the convict concealed the drugs, which were in dosages of 220mg and 225mg, inside an orange-colored jacket.
He claimed that the offence violated Section 11(b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act, CAP N30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, which is punishable under the same Act.
Based on the guilty plea of the convict, the prosecutor presented the facts of the case and tendered various evidence, including the extrajudicial statements of the convict.
He then urged the court to convict and sentence the convict in accordance with Section 274(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015.
However, the defence lawyer, Dennis Warri, while pleading for mercy, claimed that his client’s guilty plea demonstrated remorse and that he saved the court’s time.
Warri also urged the judge to impose a non-custodial sentence or a fine on the convict instead of a jail term.
In his judgment, Justice Dipeolu confirmed that the convict had no prior criminal record and sentenced him to two years on each count, to run concurrently.
The judge also fined the convict N2 million and ordered that his international passport, numbered A12562143, be forfeited to the federal government and sent to Immigration Services for cancellation.
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