Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Federal High Court in Lagos has convicted and sentenced a 42-year-old man, Prosper Agbasi, to four years’ imprisonment for smuggling a cocktail of banned drugs into Nigeria from Brazil.
Agbasi was jailed by Justice Aluko after he pleaded guilty to unlawful importation of 2.8 Kilograms of Cocaine and 30 grammes of Cannabis Sativa.
The prosecutor, Abu Ibrahim, had informed the court that the convict was arrested with the illicit drugs, on December 25, 2022, at the arrival Hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight from Brazil.
Ibrahim also claimed that the illegal acts of the convict contravened Section 11(a) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and were punishable under the same Act.
Following his guilty plea, the prosecutor urged the court to convict and sentence him as prescribed by the law under which he was charged.
However, the defence lawyer, Chief Benson Ndakara, urged the court to be lenient with his client, whom he described as a first-time offender.
Ndakara also informed the court that his client was deceived into committing the crime by those he called “bad people”.
He, therefore, pleaded with the court to consider giving his client an option of a fine instead of a custodial sentence.
Justice Aluko, in his judgment, sentenced the convict to four years imprisonment on each of the four counts.
He, however, ordered that the jail term shall run concurrently while he also gave the convict an option of a N1 million fine instead of the jail term.
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