Court Jails Turkey-bound Passenger For Trafficking Tramadol

Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Federal High Court, Lagos, has convicted and sentenced one Anoke Roomy to 12 months in prison for unlawfully exporting 600 grammes of tramadol to Turkey.

Justice Aluko jailed Roomy after he pleaded guilty to a one-count charge of trafficking in the illicit substance brought against him by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

The prosecutor, Abu Ibrahim, had earlier told the court that the convict was arrested on November 15, 2024, during the outbound clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Lagos to Turkey via Addis Ababa at the Screening Point II, Terminal 1 of Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja.

Ibrahim claimed that the defendant was in possession of a Nigerian international passport (number B51272212) at the time of his arrest, which he intended to use to board an Ethiopian Airlines from Lagos to Turkey via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital.

He also informed the court that the convict’s action contravened Section 11(b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act, CAP N30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and was punishable under the same Act.

Based on his guilty plea, the prosecutor urged the court to convict and sentence the convict in accordance with the section of the NDLEA Act for which he was charged.

However, the defence lawyer, Augustine Nwagu, pleaded the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing his client.

The lawyer said, “He is a first-time offender and very remorseful. So, he didn’t waste the court’s time.

“He has been convicted for offences of 600 grams of tramadol, which is not banned but controlled. In his statement, the tramadol is for his personal use and he said it cost him N40,000, not knowing that it would land him in trouble.

“The court should also consider the period he has spent in custody. We pray for a non-custodial sentence in accordance with Section 416 of ACJA 2015.”

The judge, after confirming from the prosecutor that the convict was a first-time offender without any record of conviction and after citing a plethora of authorities, sentenced the convict to 12 months imprisonment.

He, however, gave the convict an option of N300,000 fine.

The judge also ordered that the convict’s international passport be forfeited to the Nigerian Immigration Service, the issuing agency, and that the drug exhibits be destroyed if there is no appeal against the judgment within the stipulated period.