Man Bags 37 Years Imprisonment For Drug Trafficking
A 36 year old man Efobi Onyeka Innocent was on Friday jailed for 37 years by a Federal High Court in Lagos for unlawfully importing 1.515 kilograms of cocaine into Nigeria from Brazil.
The trial judge, Ayotunde Faji convicted and sentenced the convict to prison after he pleaded guilty to a three-count charge of unlawful possession of cocaine and conspiracy to unlawfully import the said banned drug.
The convict was arraigned by the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), which stated that the offences contravened sections 11(d,) 11(b) and 14(b) of the NDLEA Act, 2004.
The convict had initially pleaded not guilty to the charge.
During the trial, NDLEA counsel, Mrs. Juliana Iroabuchi called six witnesses, who testified that the convict was arrested at the arrival hall of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, on September 27, 2017, when it was discovered that he ingested the cocaine from Brazil en route Morocco.
They told the court that he excreted same six times during interrogation.
But midway into the trial, Innocent changed his plea to guilty.
While pleading for mercy on behalf of his client on Friday, the convicts counsel prayed the court to be lenient in sentencing his client, on the ground that he was a first time offender with no previous criminal record and had become remorseful in detention.
The lawyer said the convict engaged in the act to raise money for his collapsed business.
But in his judgment, Justice Faji turned down Innocent’s plea.
The judge held, “I do not agree that the convict is remorseful, he only changed his plea after the prosecution had gone far with his trial.
“One must not lose sight of the rampant nature of the crime. Consequently, I shall sentence you, Efobi Onyeka Innocent, to 15 years imprisonment on count one, seven years on count two and fifteen years on count three.
The terms shall run concurrently,” the judge ruled.
