Drug Smuggler Bags 5 Years Jail Term
A hard drug Smuggler, Aria Emmanuel Onwuka, was Wednesday convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment by a Lagos Federal High Court, for unlawful dealing in 25. 6 kilograms Ephedrine, a banned substance.
The drug smuggler was given the jail term by Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, after finding him guilty of the charge of the offence slammed on him by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
In pronouncing the smuggler guilty of the charge, Justice Aneke ruled that the prosecution has proved the charge beyond every reasonable doubt.
During the convict’s trial, the prosecutor, Mr. Augustine Nwagu, told the court that the convict was arrested with the banned drug, on August 28, 2021, during the outward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airline flight to South Africa at Gate “C” of the Departure hall of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
He told the court that the offence committed by the convict, contravened section 20(1}(a) and punishable under Section 20 (2)(a) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agencs Act Cap N30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
The prosecutor told the court to convict and sentenced the convict to the normal period as prescribed by the law.
But his lawyer, C. Okenyi, in his allocutor, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy in sentencing his client.
Okenyi who told the court that his client was a first time convict, who did not have record of conviction, begged the court to give his client a non-custodian sentence, or in alternative, an option of fine, for he is a first time convict without a record of previous conviction.
Justice Aneke, after taken parties’ submissions, sentenced the convict to five years imprisonment.
The judge however gave the convict soft landing, by ordering him to pay an option of fine in the sum of N3 million.
The judge held that the convict’s Jail-term start to count from November 23, 2022.
Charge against the convict reads: “that you Arua Emmanuel Onwuka, male, adult on or about the 28th day of August 2021 during the outward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airline flight to South Africa at Gate “C” of the Departure hall of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos within the jurisdiction n of this Honourable Court without lawful authority exported 25.6 kilogrammes cf Ephedrine and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 20(1}(a) and punishable under Section 20(2)(a) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
