A 39 year-old man, Soetan Adebola Ahmed, has been convicted and sentenced to a year Imprisonment, for attempting to export Indian hemps also known as marijuana, to London, United Kingdom.
Presenting the charge against the convict before the court, NDLEA prosecutor, Mrs. Juliana imaobong-Iroabuchi, said the convict was arrested on January 29, 2020, at NAHCO Shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, lkeja, Lagos, during the Examination of Cargo for Exportation to London.
Juliana told the court that the convict, in a bid to deceive the operatives of the agency of his interior motives, neatly concealed the prohibited ‘leaf’ weighing 1.62 kilograms, which is similar to cocaine and others, in several packs of Dudu Osun Soap and kept them inside a carton.
The prosecutor told the court that the offence committed by the convict contravened section Section 11(b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act. Cap N30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and punishable under same Act.
She pleaded to with the court to sentence the convict, following his guilty plea and tendered exhibits.
But, the counsel to the convict, Bolanle Kolawole, in her allocutor, pleaded with the court to be lenient in sentencing her client, as he did not waste the precious time of the court and being a first time offender, who did not have previous criminal or conviction record.
Bolanle also told the court that her client had turned a new leaf, since his incarceration when he was arrested in February, 2020 and had promised not to involve in such ignoble act.
Justice Oweibo, after listening to both counsel, sentenced the convict to a year Imprisonment. The judge said the jail term will commence from February 29, when he was arrested.
The judge also ordered the destruction of the confiscated leaf after 90 days, if there is no appeal against the judgment.
