Man, 30, bags 6 months imprisonment for drug trafficking

A Federal High Court in Lagos, on Friday sentenced a 30-year-old man, Monday Obi, to six months imprisonment for trafficking in illicit drugs.

Obi had pleaded guilty on arraignment.

Justice Mohammed Yunusa sentenced Obi after listening to the review of the facts of the case made by Mr Edimoh Umoh, an officer of the NDLEA.

Umoh was led in evidence by the Prosecutor, Mr Jeremiah Aernan.

He told the court that he was the Investigating Police Officer attached to the Lagos State Command of the NDLEA.

The officer said that Obi was caught by a team of NDLEA opratives on duty.

He said the accused was brought to his office by the NDLEA patrol team with two wraps of the hard drug.

According to him, NDLEA forensic experts tested the sample of the substance and it tested positive to Indian hemp.

Umoh told the court that in the course of investigation, he came across the statement of the accused, certificate of test analysis and the seized substance.

The prosecutor tendered the items in court and they were admitted in evidence.

Aernan urged the court to convict the accused based on his plea and the evidence before the court.

The prosecutor said the convict committed the offence on Feb. 5, at Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos.

He said the convict was unlawfully in possession of two wraps of Indian hemp.

Umoh said that the offence contravened Section 19 of the NDLEA Act, Cap N30, Laws of the Federation, 2004.

The accused pleaded for leniency and promised never to indulge in the illegal act again, saying that he was lured into the act by his friends.

The judge, however, sentenced him to six months imprisonment and ordered that the sentence should take effect from the day of his arrest.

He also ordered that the substance should be destroyed.

The convict was first arraigned on April 17 and had been in detention since his arrest. (NAN)