Justice Yelim Bogoro of the Federal High Court in Lagos has imposed a three-month community service sentence on a 57-year-old teacher, Oteka Azikiwe, for unlawfully dealing in various banned substances.
Justice Bogoro also ordered Azikiwe to pay an additional fine of N800,000 after he pleaded guilty to a three-count charge of unlawful dealing in illicit drugs.
The convict was arraigned before the court sometime in February on the offences of unlawful dealing in 12 grammes of cocaine, 12 grammes of heroin and 19 grammes of cannabis sativa, popularly called marijuana.
The prosecutor, Lambert Nor, had told the judge that the convict was arrested on December 9, 2023, at Honda Company Area, Ajao Estate, Lagos State, where he was hawking the banned substances.
The convict initially pleaded not guilty to the charge but later changed his plea midway through the trial.
Based on the development, Nor reviewed the facts of the case and then urged the court to convict and sentence Azikiwe by the sections of the law for which he was charged.
The convict, in his plea for mercy, told the court that he was a secondary school teacher in Delta State.
He also told the court that he left his teaching job and started peddling drugs due to his wife’s death.
The convict, therefore, begged the court to be merciful as he had learnt his lesson since he was arrested.
In the same vein, the defence lawyer, Oke Ojakovo, in his allocutus, urged the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing his client because he is a first-time offender with no record of conviction.
After listening to the plea, Justice Bogoro sentenced the convict to three months of community service.
She also ordered the convict to pay a fine of N800,000,00 in addition to community service.
