Three drug traffickers, Suleiman Tunde Oba and Salami Hakeem Babatunde, were today, convicted and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment each, but a Federal High Court, for trafficking in 25.10 kilograms of Ephedrine, a prohibited drug.
The convicted men were given the jail-term by Justice Nicholas Oweibo, after they pleaded guilty to a count-charge of conspiracy and trafficking in the banned substance.
However, another alleged drug trafficker arraigned alongside the convicted men, Edet Godwin Matthew, denied the offence and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The prosecutor, Mr. Augustine Nwagu, told the court that the convicted two men and Edet Godwin Matthew had conspired with one Maruf Olasunkanmi Akande, who is now at large, to commit the illegal act on August 25, 2023.
He told the court that the convicted men were arrested with the drug, during outward clearance of passengers of Rwandair flight to Johannesburg, South Africa at the boarding gate of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
He also told the court that the offences committed by the convicted men, contravened sections 14(b) and 11(b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004. And punishable under the same Act.
Lawyers to the convicted drug traffickers, Chief Benson Ndakara and G. Okenyi, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy in sentencing their clients.
The pray the court to consider the timely guilty plea of the clients as a sign of remorse and that their clients have promised not to engage in any form of crimes if given second chance.
They particularly urged the court to consider non-custodian sentence and fine option in lieu of the custodian sentence.
Justice Oweibo in his judgment, sentenced each of the convicts to five years imprisonment on charges of conspiracy and drug trafficking.
The judge however awarded fine option of N1 million on each of the counts. And ordered that the jail-term should run concurrently while the fine option should be consecutively, ordering that each of convicted men should serve five jail-term of pay the fine of N2 million.
